Unraveling 'The Mummy' After 25 Years

When The Mummy hit the big screen in 1999, no one predicted the monster success the quirky action-adventure movie would become.

With research suggesting that theatergoers didn't want to see a film about "a guy wrapped in bandages," everyone from director Stephen Sommers to leading man Brendan Fraser expected the film to flop. Even Imhotep actor Arnold Vosloo (the titular mummy) had concerns, worried that he'd "never work again" once the movie premiered.

Well, The Mummy proved the doubters wrong, grossing $417 million worldwide and actually saving Universal Studios from bankruptcy. 25 years later, the film is still beloved, with the cast remembering the film as fondly as its fans.

To celebrate the anniversary, Newsweek spoke to Rachel Weisz, Vosloo, Patricia Velasquez and Kevin J. O'Connor for a behind-the-scenes look at the late 90s classic.

'What the F*** Is This?'

Set in the 1920s, the film follows Rick (Brendan Fraser), aspiring Egyptologist Evelyn "Eevee" Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), and her lovable—but useless—brother Jonathan (John Hannah). The trio accidentally awakens Imhotep, a mummy cursed to wreak havoc on the world, but who mostly just wants to resurrect his dead girlfriend.

It's been more than two decades since he took on the role of Imhotep, but Vosloo still gets fans telling him how much they adore The Mummy.

"The power of this movie is amazing," he told Newsweek. "People just love it."

However, the 61-year-old wasn't sure what "he'd gotten himself into" at the time.

After the studio locked down Fraser and Weisz as leads, the search for the mummy began. Vosloo was recommended by Sean Daniel and James Jacks, who'd worked with the South African actor on the 1993 Jean Claude Van Damme movie, Hard Target.

After one meeting, Sommers knew the South African actor was perfect for part, but Vosloo was slightly confused.

"I hadn't read the script at that point," he explained. "[I was] like, what the f*** is this? "Am I, like, in bandages? Walking around in toilet paper? But I finally got a got hold of the script and thought it was great fun."

Vosloo wasn't the only one who was stunned by the film's blockbuster status.

"With The Phantom Menace opening up [that weekend], I just thought it would swallow everything else up," Kevin J O'Connor, who played Beni Gabor, told Newsweek.

"But [The Mummy] just kept getting stronger. It was pretty cool."

A Man in Love

The Mummy somehow managed to blend action, horror, comedy and romance, but according to Vosloo, it's the love story between Imhotep and Anck-su-namun—as well as the romance between Rick and Eevee—that drives the plot and makes it stand out from other adventure movies.

"Steve and I spoke, and I said to him, 'Look, I think what will really work is that I can play a man in love," the 61-year-old explained. "This guy is doing all this because he loves this woman and he wants to be with her, and that's all-consuming. He will destroy the world [for her]."

The film opens with the priest Imhotep being mummified alive, a curse for helping his girlfriend, Anck-su-namun, to kill her fiance—who just happens to be the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Venezuelan actress and model Patricia Velasquez portrayed Anck-su-namun. At 27-years-old, the ancient Egyptian was her first big role.

"She's just so great and so perfect in it," Vosloo said. "I spoke to her and said 'This is what we're going to do, we're going to look at each other like there's nobody else in the room. The rest will fall into place.'"

Velasquez also has warm memories of her time on set. She later reprised the role in the 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns.

"Working with Arnold Vosloo was fantastic," she told Newsweek. "He's a serious actor who took his craft seriously."

'We've Got a Fat Mummy'

He may not have worn bandages, but Vosloo's costume did cause him some initial discomfort.

"I never for a second thought I was going to be in, like, a super revealing outfit," he said. "I had this belly and they put me in this damn g-string.

"The wardrobe department said to Steve, 'Ah man, we've got a problem. We've got a fat mummy."

Vosloo worked out every day in the run-up to filming and cut carbs out of his diet, losing roughly 10 to 15 pounds. However, the regime wasn't as uncomfortable as being shaved twice a day to get Imhotep's smooth look.

"I would spread my legs and [the makeup artist] would start at my ankles and shave my legs and my tummy and my chest and my arms and everything," Vosloo said.

"I would joke about it at first, but then after a few weeks of it, you just sort of walk in, assume the position. She shaved me, bronzed my butt, and then I walked off, done, next."

However, the most revealing outfit belonged to Velasquez. Her costume was mostly body paint, accompanied by a barely-there skirt and chain-mail bikini top, which she described as "uncomfortable."

"I don't remember the exact duration, but [the body paint] took many hours," she recalled. "They had a special chair made for me, and four people worked on applying the body paint. Retouching took a few hours daily."

O'Connor also had wardrobe issues. O'Connor's character Beni accidentally becomes Imhotep's henchman, with O'Connor acting as a comedic foil to Vosloo's more serious approach.

The actor ignored the costume department's suggestion that his character wear boots, believing that Beni was a sandals guy—despite spending hours a day on the scorching sands of the Sahara Desert.

"This very smart costume designer said, 'Do you know where you're going to be at?'" O 'Connor said. "[I went] that's OK. I just think he should have sandals."

However, he later came to regret the decision, adding: "Why didn't I listen to this guy?"

'I Never Expected It To Be in the Movie'

The Mummy cost $62 million, with Universal reportedly spending $15 million on special effects alone. CGI was still relatively new in cinema, with Vosloo having "no idea what to expect" as an actor.

While filming the famous sandstorm scene, in which Imhotep conjures a wall of dust and sends it after Rick and Jonathan, Vosloo became certain that he would "never work again."

"[I was] standing on a sand dune, and the director was 200 meters away and he's telling me to point at the sky, wave your arms with this big old loud [bull horn]," Vosloo recalled.

"You just feel so stupid. When he yelled cut, I said to Rachel, 'We're never going to work again because this feels weird, but how wrong was I?'"

O'Connor was also bewildered, but his confusion while filming the sandstorm scene led to one of his character's best lines.

"I called the [CGI] guys and said, 'Can you explain to me what I'm supposed to be looking at?'" O'Connor recalled. "They said it's going to be this huge sand thing, like a tidal wave or a big wall of sand."

While walking away at the end of the scene, O'Connor ad-libbed: "I loved the whole sand wall trick. It was beautiful."

"I never expected it to be in the movie," he chuckled.

'We Had Some Brilliant Technicians'

However, not all of the effects were CGI. Along with the Sahara Desert, shooting took place in Marrakech, Morocco, and Shepperton Studios in London over 17 weeks. Hamunaptra, The City of the Dead, was built inside a dormant volcano, while props such as the Book of the Dead and the Canopic jars were handcrafted by Dick George Creatives.

The most elaborate set was the library scene. While trying to place a book back on a high shelf, librarian Eevee stumbles on the ladder, accidentally knocking every bookcase over like a stack of Dominos.

"I got given the funniest line I probably ever had to say—'Oops,' after all these bookshelves crashed into each other," Weisz told Newsweek.

The scene was recorded in one take using a 360-degree camera rig that spun around the room. If they'd failed to capture the scene, it would have taken a whole day to set the room back up again—including 12,000 books.

"Lucky we did get it in one take," she said. "We had some brilliant technicians [and] my ladder seemed pretty safe."

'There's a Sort of Sweetness to It'

The Mummy was a game-changer for its stars, turning the cast into household names.

"[It] profoundly impacted my life," Velasquez said. "People remember me for these films. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of such a beloved movie."

After The Mummy premiered, people began to recognize Weisz in the street. Even today, she says people still associate her with Eevee.

"It's definitely an enduring film," the 54-year-old said.

O'Connor attributes the movie's ongoing popularity to its "likability and charm."

"There's a sort of sweetness to it," he said, crediting Sommers' script as well as his co-star's performances.

However, Vosloo believes The Mummy's success isn't so easy to quantify, putting it down to the "weird, cool and unexplainable thing that is the film business."

"You know you can you can have a great script and you can have the best actors and then but there's something magical that has to happen between you and the audiences," he said.

"Nobody can say what that formula is. It's just this weird thing that has to happen."

Correction 05/08/24 10:11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with corrections to the spellings of Daniel, Velasquez and pharaoh