BRENDAN FRASER / ACTOR

He was dug in “Encino Man.” Now Brendan Fraser, 28, is a real swinger in “George of the Jungle.” But there’s more to him than grunts, pecs and pelts. The Indiana-born Hollywood resident was in Showtime’s “Twilight of the Golds” examining the issue of fetal genetic testing, he plays a driven romantic in the upcoming indie film “Still Breathing” and is about to start on a film with no less than Sir Ian McKellen.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE: “Playing George presented me with some really bizarre acting choices I’ve rarely been asked to make. Like being in a loin cloth and grasping by my fingernails to a vine as I swing toward a stationary object, screaming, while monkeys hold up numbers.”

A VINE TIME: “To prepare, I went to Rockreation, the closest postmodern thing I could get to vine swinging. It’s in Santa Monica, an indoor rock climbing facility with textured walls and footholds and handholds. Learned to climb things, cut my fear of that.”

WANNABE: “The most coveted project by male actors now is Terence Malick’s ‘The Thin Red Line,’ from the James Jones novel about the battle of Guadalcanal. Terence only makes a movie every 18 or 20 years, and most everyone I’ve spoken with is interested in being part of it. Read the script, two volumes, each as thick as a phone book.”

NOW PLAYING: “I live in the neighborhood of the Laemmle 5 theaters, and there are movies coming there every week that you don’t even know are being made, so it’s a good bet to show up and see something interesting. And I can run into Billy Bob Thornton at the Wolfgang Puck’s there. Great guy.”

WIRED: “I’m a cyberjunkie. I use the Internet as a very helpful tool as an actor. Right now I’m researching a project I’m in with Ian McKellen called ‘Gods and Monsters,’ from the Christopher Bram book ‘Father of Frankenstein.’ It’s based on James Whale, who directed more than 20 films, most notably ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Bride of Frankenstein.’ ”

TRAFFIC COP: “I’m a pretty agreeable fellow, but if there’s anything I could change in this town it would have to be the three cars through the intersection after a yellow light rule. I don’t get it. Didn’t these people go to kindergarten?”

MUNCHIES: “I like Hirozen, tucked in a little strip mall on Beverly and Orlando, next to a lightbulb store. People are always crammed on the sidewalk waiting to get in. They make a big salmon hand roll that will blow out your eyeballs.”