Brendan Fraser has been making headway in recent months, as his latest performance in The Whale has gotten many to think he's acquired a bit of Oscar buzz. Audiences made that clear when they cheered his performance after the premiere was over, which got Fraser a little worked up.

After the video of Fraser getting emotional at The Whale premiere went viral, Fraser delved into what it was like to see a raw reaction video of himself become as popular as it was, given that his popularity has only recently started back up for the first time in the social media era.

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In an interview with GQ, Fraser reflected on what was going through his head as he was getting emotional following the positive reception to his performance in The Whale. “Crying is a word that’s, like, you’ve injured yourself, or there’s some harm done; I think I honestly was just smiling so hard my face leaked.” Fraser then went into what it was like to get that kind of reception at such a prestigious festival. “I’d never been in that microscope before...It’s…it’s powerful stuff.”

The Whale Trailer Brendan Fraser

Fraser's career has only just started to see a resurgence over the last few years. After being a surefire movie star in the 1990s and 2000s, Fraser fell off for a time due to a myriad of issues between injuries, divorce, and being a victim of sexual abuse. Fraser has only recently gotten himself back into the limelight, which his fans have both been paying close attention to and rooting for, seeing how they grew up with him during his heyday. What makes the positive The Whale reviews all the more special is that Fraser had never really received that sort of acclaim as an actor before this movie became as publicized as it did.

While no one has seen the movie yet, it truly is refreshing to see Fraser take on a role that required as much method acting as it did. Not just because he's playing a morbidly obese man but because he is also playing someone who wants a rapport with his family with the clock ticking on his life. Doing so required Fraser to get into the right prosthetics not only for his physical transformation in The Whale but also to fit someone desperate and caring as his character was at the same time. Pulling something like that off is not easy.

It's also such a strong contrast from the characters that Fraser usually played. Fraser usually played the action hero or the goofball loser in the movies he starred in during his days as an A-List movie star. He wasn't typically one to be in a full-fledged drama. He was in some during the early days of his career, but once he became an actor who was in demand for blockbusters, he mostly stayed away from that genre. With him working to get his reputation back, agreeing to do this role was a risk for Fraser because it's unfamiliar territory, and now it's leading to arguably the strongest reception he's ever had as an actor.

The Whale will premiere in theaters on December 9, 2022.

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Source: GQ