Hollywood actor Brendan Fraser broke down in tears when The Whale received a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival recently.
According to Variety magazine, the standing ovation lasted a full six minutes with Fraser’s reaction recorded and going viral on Twitter. Apparently, Fraser was supposed to leave after the screening but stayed back once he heard the raucous applause.
There were also rumours of a possible Oscar nomination for Best Actor and this would definitely be a first for Fraser.
The film is based on a screenplay of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter. The feature film is directed by Darren Aronofsky. The movie tells the tale of a 600-pound man named Charlie Fraser who tries to reconnect with his daughter (played by Sadie Sink) years after abandoning his family for a new life with his gay lover who has since died.
His binge eating has resulted in dramatic weight gain causing the middle-aged man to have health issues.
“The saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover is really a big theme in this film. You can’t judge any of these characters by their first impressions. The way that Charlie the English teacher is constantly pushing his students to find honesty and truth to get beyond the cover, I found very inspiring.”
Fraser, 53, said that transforming into a 600-pound man in the film took a huge toll on him.
He said that he wanted to fully immerse himself in Charlie’s character and become ‘unrecognizable’.
“If there is no risk, then why bother?,” said the actor.
“I want to learn from the people I’m working with at this point in my career. I’ve had such variety a lot of high highs and low lows, so what I’m keen for, in this second half of my time doing this, is to feel like I’m contributing to the craft and I’m learning from it. This is a prime opportunity. I wanted to disappear into it.My hope was that I would become unrecognizable,” he said.
The Whale will be released in theaters on Dec 9, 2022.
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