On top of getting Oscar buzz surrounding his latest lead performance in the film drama, The Whale, Brendan Fraser admitted that playing the lead in Darren Aronofsky's latest film was his greatest challenge as an actor.
In a press conference back at the Venice Film Festival, Fraser admitted that playing the 600-pound Charlie in The Whale was the toughest role he could play, and not just because Charlie himself suffers from morbid obesity. Fraser also went into detail about Charlie's best qualities as a man and what preparation Fraser had to do to play him.
"My journey to where I am now has been to explore as many characters as I can, and this presented the biggest challenge to me that I wanted," Fraser said. "By far and away, I think that Charlie is by far the most heroic man that I have ever played because his superpower is to see the good in others and bring that out in him. In that process, he's on his journey of salvation." Fraser then went on to talk about what it was like to play Charlie in Aronofsky's new film. "I needed to learn to absolutely move in a new way. I developed muscles I did not know that I 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 of the boat and onto the dock here at Venice."
After the film premiered at the film festival, audiences cheered when the credits rolled, but more specifically, the audience cheered Fraser on following his standout performance as Charlie. Not only has this been regarded as arguably the best performance of his career, but it's also the first film in years in which Fraser played the lead. Video captured Fraser getting quite emotional at The Whale premiere following the unanimously positive response to his performance in the film, which is understandable, knowing how long it's been since Fraser was the lead in a film.
It's clear the role truly meant something to Fraser as an actor. From the way he described it at the press conference, Fraser truly went all out to capture Charlie's essence. While seeing Fraser acting again is awesome enough as it is, portraying someone like Charlie would be out of Fraser's comfort zone. Fraser's claim to fame was mostly playing the lead in family-friendly adventure comedies, so to see him play a man who strives to see the good in others despite his health issues must have been a challenge, but all indications are that Fraser was up to the task.
Seeing Fraser come back into relevance has to be one of the more heartwarming stories over these past few years. Fraser has suffered a lot of heartbreak over the past decade or so. Between his divorce, being sexually abused by a Hollywood exec, and suffering from injuries caused by doing his own stunts, Fraser has had a lot on his plate to deal with. To see him get right back on the horse to push himself in new acting roles is pretty awesome to see. The fact of the matter is because audiences grew up with him in their favorite childhood movies, the internet is largely rooting for Fraser to get his career right back on track. It appears The Whale is a huge step forward in his comeback.
The Whale will premiere in theaters on December 9, 2022.