The Whale is getting a lot of buzz this season, and it is seen by many as the triumphant return of Brendan Fraser. Recently, director Darren Aronofsky revealed that it took him 10 years to find the right actor to play the role of Charlie.
In A24's The Whale, English teacher Charlie struggles to reconnect with his estranged daughter after he had abandoned his family for a mistress many years ago. Now, his lover is dead, and grief and guilt push Charlie toward uncontrollable binge eating that has left him weighing 600 pounds. At Venice International Film Festival, The Whale received a 6-minute standing ovation and reduced star Fraser to tears. Critics agree that Fraser's performance as Charlie is stellar, but for the director, the casting was far from easy.
In an interview with Deadline, Aronofsky said that it took him 10 years to find the right actor for Charlie. “I spent a lot of time meeting and thinking about lots of different actors. People were also coming to me and suggesting different actors. But, [the choices] just didn’t get me out of bed in the morning to make it.” The struggle to find the right actor stalled the movie for almost a decade. In 2012, The Whale was performed as a play written by Samuel D. Hunter. Aronofsky, who was in the audience, became convinced he had to make the film. But without someone to play Charlie, the movie couldn't go forward.
That all changed when Aronofsky happened to see a trailer for Journey to the End of the Night, an independent film from Brazil, starring none other than The Mummy star himself, Fraser. It was then that “a lightbulb went off” in the director's head, according to an interview with the Associated Press. Aronofsky recalls reaching out to the actor, saying, “Meeting him as a gentleman and getting a sense of his presence, I was like, ‘This guy could pull it off.’ It was just a gut feeling,” according to an article from Deadline. “We put up a reading of the script, and from that moment, it was like, ‘OK, we’ve got Charlie.’”
Fraser was once Hollywood's biggest star, known for action blockbusters like The Mummy (1999) and George of the Jungle (1997). But in the past decade or two his career had precipitously declined due to a tragic combination of physical injury, trauma from being sexually harassed, and, so the actor believes, being blacklisted in the industry for speaking up against his abuser. But now the beloved and once-ubiquitous actor is back. Even more poignant are the apparent similarities between the actor and his role as Charlie. Both are dealing with events that happened years ago, struggling to get past their grief and trying to open back up.
The Whale is set to release on December 9, 2022.
Source: Deadline, Associated Press