Brendan Fraser is back with The Whale. The moving drama has bagged the lead actor an Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category. This nomination must taste sweeter for Fraser because, for years, he was allegedly blacklisted from the industry and not invited to major awards functions. It was the role of Charlie in The Whale that brought him back. The actor thinks that this character allowed him to bare his deepest emotional issues to bag the most prestigious acting award nomination in the world.
Brendan Fraser Explains His Connection To The Whale
During an interview with Gold Derby, Brendan Fraser explained what drew him to the character of Charlie, a morbidly obese man who weighs 600 pounds. The actor said that the character gave him purpose, so he wanted to portray him as a human with emotions, desires, and shades. As per Fraser:
“Well, it moved me deeply, uh, to grow to learn the material. When I was allowed to have sight of it after, you know, the process of meeting Darren. And for, for what it stood for is what really got my engine going and, and gave me a sense of, um, purpose. And I’ll just say it gave me a sense of moral obligation. I want to play Charlie with the dignity that he deserves. He is not the physical manifestation of how he presents in his corporal being. He is a human with his conflict, his darker shades, his mistakes, his hopes, his desires, all of that. All of that’s there.”
The Mummy actor further said that the physical aspect of the character was also created sympathetically, unlike the body suits that are meant to be jokes. He said:
“To physically play the role, clearly Charlie had to be created from the outside in. He’s a man whose, body on paper is hundreds and hundreds of pounds. And to create that, a great deal of, costuming, shaped wardrobe, and prosthetic makeup were needed to give a reality and authenticity to the way he moves, the way his body moves. And the mandate on that was that it always observed gravity and physics, unlike so many, weight-gain costumes we’ve seen in films in previous years, which are normally in service of a one-note, mean joke or they just are inauthentic.”
Fraser’s love for the character is understandable. Fans of the actor allege that the star was drawn to the role because Fraser, like Charlie, was othered and disregarded by the industry he had worked in for so long. Whether the actor really connected with the character that intensely is just speculation but as per the Inkheart star, he was debarred from the industry for protesting his harassment.
Brendan Fraser Was Kicked Out Of Hollywood
In an interview with GQ back in 2018, Fraser alleged that he was sexually assaulted by Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Philip Berk. He said:
“His left-hand reaches around grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around, I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry.”
This incident allegedly made him depressed and withdraw from the public for years. After the incident, Fraser claimed that he wasn’t invited to award functions or given acting roles anymore. The actor said:
“I don’t know if this curried disfavor with the group, with the HFPA. But the silence was deafening. The phone does stop ringing in your career, and you start asking yourself why. There are many reasons, but was this one of them? I think it was.”
Berk denied all of Fraser’s claims to GQ and said that everything was a lie. Presumably, the actor has put his past behind him. Right now, he is one of the top contenders to win the golden statue for his role as Charlie in The Whale. Whether he can net the top prize or not will be seen soon.
The 95th Academy Awards will air on 12 March 2023.
Source: Gold Derby
