When director Darren Aronofsky was looking for an actor to play the lead role in The Whale — a film about a 600-pound hermit who desperately tries to reconnect with an estranged daughter and heal from his traumatic history — he wasn’t really familiar with the project by Brendan Fraser. work. Sure, the actor was one of the most recognizable leading men of the ’90s — think Encino Man, School Ties and George of the Jungle — “but that was the generation after me, those movies,” said Aronofsky to CBC’s Eli Glasner. “So I didn’t even know what his acting ability was. “And then by chance… I caught the trailer for a low-budget Brazilian film in Portuguese and Brendan had a supporting role, and it was one of those lightbulb moments. I just felt it.” Fraser, a 53-year-old American-Canadian actor who lived in Ottawa and Toronto (among other places) with his family during a nomadic adolescence, finds The Whale a potentially career-defining role after more than a decade of low profile performances and a series of injuries, including multiple surgeries on his back, knees and vocal chords. A sign of Fraser’s support is displayed at the TIFF premiere of The Whale on Sunday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) He stars alongside Sadie Sink, best known for her role as Max on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Aronofsky called the 20-year-old actress a “cannon”. On the TIFF red carpet Sunday ahead of the film’s North American premiere, Fraser said he was blown away by the prosthetics made by Montreal costume designer Adrien Moreau. “The first time I saw his creation on a mannequin, I thought it was on loan, like Tate Modern,” he told the CBC’s Lisa Xing. “It was so impressive, so exciting. It’s almost like it did my job for me in so many ways because I needed to wear it just to play a man so burdened by the trauma that he feels.” The actor has worked with the Obesity Action Coalition to ensure the issue is handled sensitively, he said. Although not directly autobiographical, the story is based in part on the experiences of playwright Samuel D. Hunter. WATCHES | Fraser describes his physical transformation in The Whale:
Brendan Fraser describes his physical transformation in The Whale
Brendan Fraser and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter discuss their film, The Whale, on the TIFF red carpet ahead of its North American premiere. “It’s set in my hometown of Idaho, where I was a gay teenager going to a religious school that taught that homosexuality was a mortal sin,” said Hunter, who adapted his play in 2012 for the screen. “Early on I began to self-medicate with food. I became very large,” added the author. “I mean, of course, a lot of people are big and happy and healthy, this is just my story – no one else’s… I was scared to write it. “I’m glad I didn’t know this was going to happen,” he added of the film’s high-profile reception, “because I would have been too scared to write it, but I’m glad I did. I’m glad I was able to give it to Brendan.” PHOTOS | The stars shine on the TIFF red carpets:
The actor has a “Canadian goodness,” says the director
The actor has received an outpouring of support online and in real life, as seen during a recent viral video from the Venice International Film Festival where he received a six-minute standing ovation after the world premiere of The Whale. “There’s an underlying — let’s call it Canadian goodness — about Brendan that just hits and charms people,” Aronofsky said. “Look, I haven’t really talked about it. But I had no idea how much love and goodwill for Brendan I started this process with. That wasn’t part of my calculations.” Fraser and director Darren Aronofsky appear on the TIFF red carpet for The Whale on Sunday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) Make no mistake, though: Fraser would rather talk about the character than himself. “Charlie is a man who lives with a lot of regrets. He’s alone in his two-bedroom apartment, he has a lot of trauma in his life. And that manifests in his need to eat to comfort himself to such an extent that he wears it on his physical of existence,” the actor told Glasner in an interview ahead of the film’s screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Fraser went on to say that he doesn’t identify with the character’s problems. “I had a sense, when I was making this film, that given the time it was taken during the lockdown — I think we all felt that this might be the last time we ever get the privilege of doing this kind of work.” he said. “So there was a certain amount of courage and abandon that we brought every day to it. And we ended up caring about each other a lot more. And I think that really shows in the quality of the film.”
