NEW YORK (AP) ā In a darkened hotel room in New York's Soho neighborhood, Brendan Fraser kindly greets a reporter with an open plastic bag in his hand. āWould you like a gummy bear?ā
Fraser, the 54-year-old actor, is in many ways an extremely familiar face to encounter. Here is the once ubiquitous ā90s presence and action star of āThe Mummyā and āGeorge of the Jungle,ā whose warm, earnest disposition has made him beloved, still, many years later.
But Fraser, little seen on the big screen for much of the last decade, is also not quite as you might remember him. His voice is softer. Heās more sensitive, almost intensely so. He seems to bear some bruises from an up-and-down life. If Fraser seems both as he was once was but also someone markedly different, thatās appropriate. In Darren Aronofskyās he gives a performance unlike any he's given before. And it may well win him an Academy Award.
Fraser's performance been hailed as his comeback ā a word, he says, that ādoesnāt hurt my feelings.ā But itās not the one heād choose.
āIf anything, this is a reintroduction more than a comeback,ā Fraser says. āItās an opportunity to reintroduce myself to an industry, who I do not believe forgot me as is being perpetrated. Iāve just never been that far away.ā
Fraser is very close at hand, indeed, in āThe Whale." In the adaptation of Samuel D. Hunterās play, which A24 releases in theaters Friday, Fraser is in virtually every scene. He plays a reclusive, obese English teacher named Charlie whose overeating stems from past trauma. As health woes shrink the time he has left, the 600-pound Charlie struggles to reacquaint himself to his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink).
Fraserās performance, , has two Oscar-friendly traits going it for: A comeback narrative and a physical metamorphosis. For the role, Fraser wore a massive body suit and prosthetics crafted by makeup artist Adrian Morot that required hours in makeup each morning.
But regardless of all the roleās transformation trappings, Fraserās performance resides in his sad, soulful eyes and compassionate interactions with the characters that come in and out of his home. (Hong Chau plays a friend and nurse.) It adds up to Fraserās most empathetic performance, one that has returned him to the spotlight after years making quickly forgotten films like āHair Brainedā (2013) and the straight-to-DVD āBreakoutā (2013). On stages now from London to Toronto, standing ovations have trailed Fraser ā a leading man reborn ā wherever he goes.
For Fraser, who spent much of his previous heyday in Hollywood swinging on vines and racing through pyramids, playing Charlie in āThe Whaleā has a cosmic symmetry. He could identify with him, Fraser says, āin ways that might surprise you.ā When he was in his late 20s trying to be as fit as he could be for āGeorge of the Jungle,ā Fraser encountered his own body-image issues.
āAll I knew is that I never felt like it was enough. I questioned myself. I felt scrutinized, judged, objectified, often humiliated,ā Fraser says. āIt did play with my head. It did play with my confidence.ā
Some ought to have gone to someone who was authentically heavy. But Fraser, who collaborated with the Obesity Action Coalition in building the performance, says he intimately understands a different kind of appearance-based judgment.
āThe term was āhimbo,āā he says. āI wasnāt sure if I appreciated it or not. I know thatās bimbo, which is a derogatory term, except itās a dude. It just left me with a feeling of profound insecurity. What do I have to do to please you?ā
āIt didnāt matter, really, because life took over. I did other things. I now arrive at a place where I see the flip side of the coin.ā
After seeing the play 10 years ago at Playwrights Horizon, Aronofsky, the director of āPi,ā āRequiem for a Dreamā and āBlack Swan,ā spent years contemplating different actors who could play the protagonist of āThe Whaleā without any success. Then he had Fraser come in and read for the part.
āIt wasnāt like I went into this with a calculation: Oh, a forgotten American-Canadian treasure,ā says Aronofsky. āHe was the right guy for the right role at the right time. If anything, I was wondering would people think it was a silly choice or something. There wasnāt any cool factor that I could see.ā
Aronofsky instead depended on his gut and an old axiom: āOnce a movie star, always a movie star.ā Plus, Fraser was hungry. He wanted the part desperately and was ready to put in all the work, all the time in the make-up chair. Still, Aronofsky would later marvel, watching a clip reel of Fraser at an awards ceremony, at the juxtaposition of āThe Whaleā with movies like āEncino Man,ā āBedazzledā and āAirheads.ā
āHe plays this kind of very present, truthful, innocent goofus kind of guy,ā says Aronofsky. āThen you intercut it with āThe Whale.ā It was kind of jaw-dropping to me that this was one human being. Thereās a gap in between of a lot of years.ā
Fraser never stopped working, but his movie star days mostly dried up in the years after his 2008 films āThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperorā and the 3D āJourney to the Center of the Earth.ā Around that time, he and his wife, Afton Smith, with whom he has three sons, divorced.
āI took some personal time. It was important,ā says Fraser. āMostly connecting with my life as a father. It gave me an appreciation for my capacity to love. What I learned informs the latter half of my professional life now.ā
āNow I know my purpose. Take everything Iāve learned. Own it. And, if possible, let if fuel the work that comes before me,ā adds Fraser. āItās a nice idea, but what work will come before me?ā
At a Beverly Hills, California, luncheon in 2003, Fraser was groped by Hollywood Foreign Press Association member Philip Berk, . (Berk disputed Fraserās account.) The experience, Fraser told GQ, made him feel like āsomething had been taken away from meā and āmade me retreat.ā
Last month, , whether heās nominated or not. āMy mother didnāt raise a hypocrite,ā Fraser said. Still, the nature of awards campaigns will likely keep Fraser in the public eye through the Oscars in March. Is he at all trepidatious about being back in the spotlight?
āI think itās going to be for the rest of my career,ā Fraser replies. āNo. I have an obligation to do this. I feel duty bound to, as politely as a I can, to use that casual prejudice to describe this character, to remind them that thereās a better way of doing that. Obesity is the last domain of accepted, casual bigotry that we still abide.ā
During shooting on a sound stage in Newburgh, New York, Chau was often impressed by how Fraser worked steadily with a hundred pounds of cumbersome prosthetics on him and crew members buzzing around him before every take.
āI just thought Brendan was such an angel and so gracious in the way he managed that and compartmentalized all that was going on around him,ā says Chau. āI naturally felt like taking care of him on set. Making sure his water bottle was someplace close by. Holding his hand and making sure he got up off the couch OK.ā
Little about the film, or Fraser's journey with it, was inevitable. His first meeting with Aronofsky was in February 2020. The pandemic nearly led to the production's cancellation.
āI gave it everything I had every day," he says. "We lived under existential threat of COVID. An actorās job is to approach everything like itās the first time. I did but also as if it might be the last time.ā
Instead, Fraser's performance opened an entire new chapter for him as an actor. He recently shot a supporting role in Martin Scorseseās upcoming āKillers of the Flower Moon.ā Pondering what comes next, though, will have to wait until another day. When the time for the interview is through, Fraser stands up and graciously pulls a bag out of his pocket.
āGummy bear for the road?ā Fraser asks. āI recommend pineapple.ā
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
