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Johnson was proud of his former costar for his success at the Venice Film Festival.

At the Venice Film Festival this past weekend, prominent filmmakers and actors appeared to show their latest film projects. One particular project that got the crowd fired up was director Darren Aaronofsky’s The Whale, which featured veteran actor Brendan Fraser in the starring role. After the film concluded, Fraser received a standing ovation for his performance, one that was so intense that he almost had to leave the theater before the applause brought him back.

Footage of this heartwarming event was retweeted by actor Dwayne Johnson on Sunday, who formerly starred alongside Fraser in The Mummy Returns. Johnson had some kind words to offer for his colleague and friend on his Twitter.

“Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan,” Johnson wrote. “He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky.”

The standing ovation for #TheWhale was so enthusiastic, Brendan Fraser tried to leave the theater but the crowd’s applause made him stay. #Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/ZZ0vbFX7Rl

— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 4, 2022

In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fraser noted that he did not work directly with Johnson on The Mummy, as his character was computer-generated, but the interactions he had with him had all been pleasant. “He was a big orange piece of tape on the end of a long two-by-four while I was working [on the film] we jumped and ducked and weaved as he thrashed and smashed around at us,” said Fraser. “I met him at the premiere for the first time and said, ‘Hi! How do you do!’ I sure liked meeting him very much and then ran into him a couple of times in the ensuing years. I was excited for him, because this was the first time that he was allowed to be an actor. He wasn’t just the go-to muscles guy. He was transitioning from the wrestling world and it was fun. It was neat. I feel happy to have known him back in the humble beginnings times, when we were all kind of starting off.”