After many years of silence, Brendon Fraser plays Charlie, a reclusive English teacher with a kind soul who weighs 270kg and has obsessive-compulsive eating disorder in his new film “The Whale“, trying to repair his relationship with his 17-year-old daughter. His superb acting skills make him a hot Oscar candidate next year.
Brendan Fraser Who Star George The Jungle and The Mummy
In the 1990s, Brendan Fraser was one of the world's most famous Hollywood movie stars, with roles such as “George of The Jungle” and “The Mummy“. The hit movies showed muscles and gave people a healthy image. In the late 2000s, they gradually faded out of the film industry, and the number of works dropped sharply.
Fraser worked with the Obesity Action Coalition in the US to prepare for The Whale, and he also consulted with people who had undergone bariatric surgeries.
“I developed muscles I did not know I had,” Fraser told reporters at a press conference in Venice. Then, he explained that he needed to “learn how to move in a new way.”
“I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed; it was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice. That undulating. It gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. You need to be an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically, to inhabit that physical being.”
The film is the latest from American director Darren Aronofsky, who won the highest honour in 2008, the Golden Lion in Venice for “The Wrestler” in 2008 and he is also well known for his dark, indie films such as “Black Swan” and “Requiem for a Dream.”
As the story unfolds, the cause of the morbid obesity emerges for the main character, Charlie, whose overeating is associated with traumatic sexual orientation and religious beliefs, but he never lets them affect his view of the world.
“Charlie is the most heroic person I've ever played,” said Brendon Fraser. “His superpower is to see the good in other people and bring the good out of them.”
Darren Aronofsky said it was “the most important message to the world”.