Brendan Fraser on playing the real John Crowley in 'Extraordinary Measures'

Were you able to spend time with the Crowleys? What were your impressions of them? 

I did. They came to the set, and I went and saw John at his research facility, the lab in New Jersey, which was fascinating to get inside a real, functioning, working laboratory, I’d never been to one before. He took me around on the dime tour, as he called it. He’s being modest; it’s a massive facility.

His company is really run by strength of character; the value that [the staff] people have as individuals seems to accompany or surpass in many ways what they have to offer one another in terms of their intellect. They’re a group who inspire one another. The whole company assembled, as they often do, and they are not just nerdy scientists – although they might laugh and admit that they are – but they realize that what they’re doing has an effect on people’s lives. They’re not just crunching numbers and doing experiments just for the sake of being clever. They very much realize the impact of their research and the good that it can bring; it’s in their company’s manifesto.

Yes, I’ve spent some time in the Crowley house; I met Aileen and Patrick and John Jr. and their terrier who doesn’t stand still. I had a movie open around this time last year, called Inkheart, and they came in for the screening. That’s when I met them the first time. I have to tell you, I was not prepared for the Herculean effort that it takes to transport these kids, the whole circus that goes with it, and this is how John would describe it, the number of people who need to accompany them in terms of their medical needs, the transportation, the vans, the planning in advance.

But the thing is, it just shows you right away that this is a family who will stop at nothing to give their children as close to any opportunity that any other kid would be deserving of. And it was their pleasure, it really was. And it was humbling and it gave me a real strong sense of purpose, and humility, to draw upon. It gave me a good center to begin this project, which I started shooting shortly thereafter.

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