The Brenaissance is official (and why it matters)

Brendan Fraser is the role model men need in these challenging times- and the standard that ladies need to set.

The Brenaissance — meaning, Brendan Fraser´s return to stardom — has been made official by this year´s Oscars. And like countless people worldwide, I couldn´t be happier for him.

In my teens and early adulthood, Brendan Fraser was one of my few celebrity crushes (along with Ralph Fiennes, who won my heart playing Heathcliff and, I´m afraid to admit it, also with his terrifying role in Schindler´s List).

Rick O´Connell from The Mummy was- and continues to be — the prototype of the ideal husband as far as I´m concerned. Handsome, athletic, adventurous, resourceful, and brave, but kind, funny, with a heart of gold.

As manly as alphas come, and a tad rough around the edges, but elegant when he needed to be — enough to successfully marry the aristocratic Evie (a character inspired by the real-life daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon, no less). Passionate, yet stable. Wild, but a devoted lover, spouse and family man willing to give his life for his wife and children. A man that can fight, build and fix things, survive, conquer… yet when he gets home, is a big teddy bear.

We could say that Rick O´Connell — and therefore Fraser, who as far as we all know is not that distant from The Mummy´s protagonist IRL- represented the archetype of the sexy nice guy to me.

Not the “nice guy” girls friendzone, let alone the fake, self-proclaimed “nice” guy who thinks that he is entitled to women to whom he is only “nice” with ulterior motives and who enviously rants that all the handsome, successful men are “jerks”; but an actual desirable guy who -Lo and behold- is genuinely nice.

Where my favourite Ralph Fiennes´ characters were dark, refined, magnetic, byronian, mysterious, dangerous, edgy and complicated, to put it nicely (therefore, they were the guy you run off to the sunset with, but eventually run away from once the honeymoon phase is over) Brendan Fraser´s roles portrayed the man that is just as thrilling (albeit in a different way) but that is actually able to give you the Happily Ever After. The guy you can build a life with, with stability but without settling, with a maturity not devoid of…