There have been multiple instances of cases when stars and creatives aren’t paid in full by studios or production houses. In related news, one is reminded of how Scarlett Johansson’s contract was violated by Disney during the making of Black Widow (2021). Such disparities between the talent and their backing are common enough in the industry, so much so that the public hardly bats an eyelid when the atrocities come to light.
But the problem gets gravely accentuated when it’s not the big names who are cut short by the studios. The behind-the-scenes helpers, such as visual effects teams, set managers, makeup artists, and stunt doubles, apart from a host of other talented individuals who help in making a project a success, are also often stiff-armed, and rarely get help in resolving their troubles. VFX artist Dave Rand recently took to Twitter to talk about such an incident.
VFX artist Dave Rand talks about Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser’s help in getting their paychecks
Meteor Studios in Montreal had promised visual effects lead Dave Rand that he and his team would get paid in full, including overtime, after completing the final few shots of Journey To The Centre of The Earth (2008). On completion, however, the team was escorted out, and it soon came to be known that Meteor was declaring bankruptcy. Rand and his associates were owed $1.3 million, none of which seemed to be materializing for them.
Rand went to the media to expose the studio, including big names like Variety, but no one showed interest in the story. Rand then tried to reach Brendan Fraser, the star and producer of the movie, but couldn’t get to him. Rand got threats from various places as well. When a small story finally made it out on the back of their own press release, including the foiled attempt to reach Fraser, Rand got a call from the star.
“This is Brendan Fraser, what the f*ck is going on?” is what Fraser famously opened with.
Apparently, Fraser had no idea about the whole thing going down in his own movie.
#BrendanFraser is a righteous dude.
In November 2007 our paychecks stopped. I was the FX lead on #JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth for Meteor Studios in Montreal and was asked to convince my crew to stay and finish the picture with a guarantee we'd all get paid with overtime. We had… https://t.co/DmQUIEAkMQ pic.twitter.com/1jegFlWECd
— Dave Rand (@daverandla) March 13, 2023
Fraser promised Rand to get to the bottom of the matter, and kept his word, too. He campaigned publicly for the VFX team and got them back most of their money, albeit almost two years later.
Brendan Fraser won big with The Whale
Once Brendan Fraser‘s commitment to the visual effects team came to the fore, fans hailed the actor generously on the microblogging site, calling him one of the “world’s nicest and most humble guy[s]”. The actor is having a good couple of months on the Internet and in the industry, on the back of his moving performance in The Whale (2022), which won a number of accolades, the most recent of which was an Academy Award for Best Actor for Fraser.
Fraser plays the role of Charlier, a morbidly obese English teacher, grieving the death of his husband. With a limited number of characters and depending almost entirely on powerful acting, strong dialogue, sharp scenes, and good cinematography overall, The Whale won hearts the world over, shortly after its release. Its good showing at the Oscars 2023, and especially Fraser’s comes hardly as a surprise.
Source: Twitter
