Yahoo Movies Brendan Fraser reveals how The Whale pushed his body and mind 'toward the danger' for his art
For as much attention — and criticism — he's received for his physical metamorphosis into a 600-pound gay professor, Brendan Fraser doesn't want anyone to forget that his Oscar-buzzed turn in The Whale also marks one of the most emotionally transformative parts of his three-decade career.
"Beyond the creative challenges was the material itself," Fraser tells EW of the role of Charlie, a recluse in the final stages of a case of life-threatening obesity as he grapples with deep-seated regret over abandoning his daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), years prior. "He's a man living alone, having regrets for choices he's made and choices that life has made for him, and in his profound sadness, which he wears on his body as a manifestation of the trauma that he has endured, which he's been trying to cure with consumption. It's important to remember that he's a human being, a person who deserves dignity and respect. While his body type differentiates from my own at present, I've had my own fluctuations in body weight, but it was helpful to put the two together to create Charlie from an authentic standpoint and get it as near to him as it was safe for me to do."
A24 Brendan Fraser reveals how 'The Whale' changed his body and heart in the name of art.
Below, Fraser elaborates on forging a relationship with Charlie alongside director Darren Aronofsky and writer Samuel D. Hunter, reconnecting with his Encino Man costar (and current Best Supporting Actor frontrunner) Ke Huy Quan on the current awards trail, whether or not he'd ever rejoin the blockbuster Mummy franchise he first fronted in 1999, and why he feels his Whale performance shouldn't be dismissed as a surface-level presentation of the character's body.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Many are calling this your "comeback," but you were on The Affair, you were in No Sudden Move last year, and you continue to star in Doom Patrol. Do you consider this a comeback?
BRENDAN FRASER: I had a brief stint working with Danny Boyle on an FX piece called Trust in the interim. I've kept myself busy. Careers go up and down on a valley-and-peak trajectory, but I believe that it's always in the ascendancy. I've never been that far away, is the short answer. Was I away, or was everyone away from me? I'll give you the answer: It doesn't matter. What's important is that, either by design or accident, the amount of time it took for me to arrive at the place where I could faithfully play Charlie with the dignity, authenticity, and honesty that it demands, may not have been at my disposal had I not gone on that journey.
You seem to be selective of the characters you play at this stage, and Charlie obviously spoke to you. Did you consider this character a potential risk when you first took the part, or did seeing the polarized reaction to your physical transformation make you realize it was risky?
You're allowed to take risks in art. You should go toward the danger, where the most growth will come, and often where the most interesting choices are made. I know that to be true, given that this film was directed by Darren Aronofsky, a world-class filmmaker who constantly challenges the human condition and never leaves easy answers for us to ponder. A challenge is good. I didn't know if I'd be invited to play this role, because Darren didn't know if he was going to be able to make this movie. It was dependent on him finding an actor.
There was no small measure of creative intimidation I felt when I sat down with him, and he was a gentleman and plainspoken about whoever he hired would be required to wear transformational makeup, apparatus, and costuming. For that, he'd rely on a longtime collaborator, Adrien Morot, who approached creating the body of Charlie using technology we have now that we didn't have, gosh, has it been 20 years since I did Bedazzled with Harold Ramis? That was several different characters who went through prosthetic makeup. There was no need to lay underneath goop poured on your face this time — we could cyberscan. That model was taken into a computer, Charlie's body could be created with absolute control [down to] the placement of pores and moles.
I love the care and consideration in your portrayal of this character as a human. It's no secret that the film has drawn criticism for that portrayal, too, for people who are maybe focusing on the superficial elements of it. You, Darren, and Sam have said that the film was made with research and love for the subject, and is an exercise in empathy. Do you think intent of the artist still matters in Hollywood, and does that impact the way you do work, knowing it might not matter to certain viewers?
This is one man's story. It's not representative of everyone who lives with a body such as Charlie's. It's not autobiographical, but it is based on what the writer intimately knows well, having grown up in Idaho himself, a gay kid who went to a religious school who I believe unfairly treated him with disdain. They outed him, he had a certain degree of sadness, and also a pedigree that he took that sadness and turned it into his art. So yes, I think it matters just as much now as it did formerly.
What we've seen with body types in films prior to this one — I looked at a lot of them. I think that those costumes, whether they were ill-intentioned or otherwise, they put quotation marks around a person who lives with obesity. And it might just be because it [was] an athletic actor inside a silhouette of a costume that was filled with cotton padding, and there's a disconnect. That didn't exist in the design of Charlie. He does have mobility issue, he does perspire profusely, he doesn't look well, he doesn't eat for pleasure, he has flaws, he's someone who's still, despite all of these things, somehow, eternally optimistic. He needed to make a decision about whether to just not exist or to lean into what he knew he cared about books, literature, teaching, and being an educator and drawing out truth and honesty from people as a way to their redemption.
And at the same time, Sam gave him a secret super power, and that's the ability to see the good in others, even when they can't see that in themselves. That's what made him infinitely humanizing to me. That's what made Charlie make me feel empathy and affinity for… I have three kids of my own, I have as much love as I'll ever need for the rest of my life. The thought that they might someday be overlooked or forgotten is something that I can't imagine, if that was really a circumstance in my life that's similar to the one that Charlie lives, the pain that the man goes through.
A24/Twitter Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser at TIFF
We've seen so much of you on the awards trail alongside Ke Huy Quan, who's also received buzz. You previously starred together in Encino Man, his last American movie before a 36-year break from acting. Have you run into him at all, and how do you feel about the recognition he's received?
Yes! I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I was like, "This is the most awesome movie that's ever been made." I love this picture, I love Michelle [Yeoh] in this, she's an old friend, and [when I saw it] I went, hang on, I know him. His name wasn't Ke in the days that I knew him, for reasons we just don't abide by any longer. Some agent told him that no one would understand [the name] or whatever. We don't get to do that anymore. He is who he is. The journey that he's taken to come to this place has given him, I think, the role of his lifetime, and he's given the performance of his lifetime, and in many ways, I, like him, feel the same way. We gave it everything we had. We're both like, "We're still here, man! We're still here."
So many people from your past collaborations have publicly supported you this season: Adam Sandler, Elizabeth Hurley, The Rock. Have you heard from anyone else wishing you well?
I've heard from people I've gone to college with, who you wouldn't know. It's nice to hear from Matthew Mungle, who put me in transformation makeup first for the film Bedazzled. We've come a long way from when that was created to the way this was created.
We're obsessed with The Mummy franchise, Bedazzled, George of the Jungle, so many of your blockbuster movies. Were there ever any serious talks for sequels to any of those projects that never happened?
I think George got a remake, and they built a joke into it that the studio was too cheap to hire me, which wasn't inaccurate.
There were discussions to do another one?
I was approached. I can't remember what I was doing at the time, but I felt like I wanted to go do The Quiet American instead with Michael Caine, and shoot the first Western film in Vietnam ever, directed by Philip Noyce, to tell an infinitely American story. I'm always making diverse choices, and, hopefully, that keeps me and an audience interested. With a bit of distance, I think they've all cumulatively led up to the place I'm in now.
Now that The Whale is a success, has anybody reached out to restart The Mummy?
Not, like, officially, no, but I know the fans have. I've been having a great time in recent years, in my so-called hiatus, going to fan conventions, keeping it real, meeting everybody and thanking them personally for putting me where I am. I think I got over myself, insofar as "I'm too busy" or "that's not for me," I don't know what I was thinking. I needed to have some gratitude.
We have to get you and Michelle Yeoh together again for another Mummy.
That sounds like fun. I'm always looking for a job, if anyone's got the right conceit. I've never been as famous and as unsalaried than I am at the moment, so, spread the word!
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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