![Brendan Fraser on his Oscar win: "There were some incredibly talented guys alongside me in that category, Colin [Farrell], Ireland's own, we didn't know which was it would go when the envelope was opened."](https://www.rte.ie/images/00239e7a-800.jpg)
Brendan Fraser opened up about his Irish ancestry and Oscar win on Friday night's Late Late Show, saying he was "more astonished than anyone else" to take home the golden statuette for Best Actor.
Appearing on Friday night's Late Late Christmas Special, the Hollywood star won over viewers when he told host Patrick Kielty about his Irish lineage, saying: "My family are the Devine family.
"My great, great grandfather went across the Atlantic in a rusty boat at the age of 11 to escape the famine and landed in Pennsylvania and became a coal miner and later a candy salesman."
The actor also spoke about how grateful he was to win the Best Actor Academy Award for Darren Aronofsky's drama The Whale in 2023, saying he was up against stiff competition in a category that also included Irish stars Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal.
"I want to be worthy of it. There were some incredibly talented guys alongside me in that category, Colin [Farrell], Ireland's own, we didn't know which was it would go when the envelope was opened," he said. "I was probably more astonished than anyone else to hear my name called."
The 57-year-old acting legend said "clearly a lot of transformational makeup" went into the role of Charlie.
"It required elaborate constuming, about four or five hours of prosthetic makeup. That was done by Adrian Monroe who won an Oscar for this look. I loved every day," Fraser said.
Fraser spoke about his new film Rental Family from director Hikari in which he plays an American actor based in Japan who begins working for a rental family agency, where he fills in hired roles for strangers.
"It's a film about making human connection in an age when we might find ourselves feeling more and more detatched in an increasingly cynical world. The antidote to that is more empathy," he said.
The American star is set appear alongside Irish actors Kerry Condon and Andrew Scott in the upcoming war film Pressure.
"Kerry is working with me in the film Pressure, about the weekend before the landing on Normandy Beach, 1944," Fraser said of the film.
"There was a storm as history lets us know. It was no small matter to push the date back because of the bad weather - the troops wouldn't have been able to land. Andrew Scott's character is a biologist and meteorologist who has to swim upstream and talk to the joint chiefs of staff before Operation Overlord.
"He has to convince them that the weather is real, and if you don't listen to me there will be a calamity, but there is a window of 11 hours. I play General Eisenhower, these are the conversations that happened that weekend that made one of the biggest historical decisions of our lives."
On recent reports of a new The Mummy "legacy sequel", Fraser remained tight-lipped.
"I hope to have happy confirmational news soon. Please be patient with me for a just bit longer before I open my mouth and say the wrong thing. My lips are sealed but...", he said.
The Late Late Show, Friday nights at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
