Brendan Fraser was moved by the overwhelming show of support he received at the Venice Film Festival, where his new film The Whale had its world premiere on Sunday. The movie, directed by Black Swan filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, is touted as Fraser’s comeback. Early reviews for the film and the standing ovation it earned suggest his performance lived up to the hype.
The Whale stars Fraser as Charlie, a 600-pound gay man struggling with obesity and hoping to reconnect with his daughter, played by Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. Hong Chau also plays a key role as Charlie’s caregiver, who warns him that he needs to change his ways or risk a trip to the hospital. Aronofsky’s script is based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter.
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During the press conference, Fraser’s voice quivered and Aronofsky often put his hand on his shoulder because the actor was brought to tears by the response, reports The New York Times. Each time Fraser answered a question, the crowd of journalists gave him a round of applause. “Thank you for the warm reception,” Fraser said. “I’m looking forward to how this film makes a deep impression on everyone as much as it has on me.”
Fraser wore prosthetic appliances that sometimes weighed up to 300 pounds. It required him to learn to move in a “new way,” the actor said, adding that he developed muscles he didn’t know he had. “I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed, just as you would feel stepping off the boat onto the dock here in Venice,” he said.
While Fraser’s performance earned acclaim and certainly will put him on the road to an Oscar nomination, The Whale is bound to attract controversy for featuring an actor in a fat suit. Fraser said the role helped him understand those with bodies similar to Charlie’s. He came away with “an appreciation for those whose bodies are similar because I learned that you need to be an incredibly strong person physically and mentally to inhabit that physical being. And I think that is Charlie, also.”
Elsewhere in the press conference, Fraser called playing Charlie the “biggest challenge” for him, and exactly what he wanted as an actor. “By far and away, I think that Charlie is the most heroic man I’ve ever played,” The Mummy star said, notes The Hollywood Reporter. “Because his superpower is to see the good in others and bring that out in them. And in that process, he’s on his journey of salvation.”
“The last few years, so many of us have lost so much,” Aronofsky said, reports The Guardian. “There’s been such a separation of human connection. Cinema is about the human connection. It’s about the chance to slide into someone else’s shoes and to have two hours of empathy and someone else’s mind, and I think it’s exactly what the world needs.”
The Whale is Fraser’s first leading role in a movie released to theaters since 2013’s Breakout. He was set to play the villain in HBO Max’s Batgirl before Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the film. A24, which produced The Whale, will release the film on Dec. 9. It will also be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
