The Whale has finally hit screens across the country, and audiences are experiencing the much-talked-about performance from Brendan Fraser. While this is not the first big comeback story in the movie game, fans are celebrating the relighting of the spotlight on Fraser, whose personal troubles prevented him from taking leading roles for a number of years. LAD Bible reports on Fraser’s whimsical attitude toward the response to his resurgence.
Even before The Whale‘s official release, Fraser’s career had already restarted at great speed as he was cast in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming anticipated movie, Killers of the Flower Moon. The School Ties actor finds himself at a first in his career, being both famous and unsalaried. When asked about a possible return to The Mummy franchise, Fraser responds, “Gosh, I don’t know any juicy details about it, but it’s kinda been an open-ended question for some time now. I’m not opposed to it. I don’t know an actor who doesn’t want a job. I don’t think I’ve been this famous and unsalaried at the same time in my professional life, so sign me up. We’ve all got to start somewhere.”
Fraser feels game for anything at the moment. Especially after the difficult preparation he underwent to portray the 600-pound English professor for The Whale. “It’s gonna be like something you haven’t seen before. That’s really all I can tell you…The wardrobe and costume was extensive, seamless, cumbersome,” Fraser said back in 2021. “This is certainly far removed from anything I’ve ever done but not to be coy… I do know it’s going to make a lasting impression.”
Fraser adds that the response to his performance as this character had taken an emotional turn, as he explained in an interview on Late Night with Seth Myers. “I just broke out crying. That solved all the problems. I feel like I’m still waiting for someone to walk in and tell me that the jig is up, you know,” Fraser says. He and director Darren Aronofsky knew they wanted to portray the character’s vice as authentically as possible. “Very often when obesity is portrayed in films [it] has been unfair, it’s been a silhouette of a costume, inside an actor who’s quite fit, [it] just seems to reorient the way we believe that someone can actually move and exist.”