Brendan Fraser Feels ‘The Whale’ Will Change Hearts Over ‘Weight Bias’
Brendan Fraser feels lucky to have been a part of a film that “touches on weight bias.” The Whale star was nominated for his role as a reclusive college professor struggling with obesity. Speaking on Friday’s (January 27) episode of Lorraine, Fraser, 54, said that after a decades-long film career, he doesn’t feel he has anything to prove anymore.
He said, “I have three kids, I know what it means to have all the love I ever need in my life and I have nothing to prove. You make one [film] for fun, for money for prestige and if you’re lucky you get to make one at all and the fact I get to be a part of a film that’s hopefully changing some hearts and touches on weight bias.”
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The Mummy alum added, “There’s harm to be done by the way we speak to each other.” Brendan, who had to wear a 50-330-pound prosthetic suit for his 600-pound character in the film, insisted it portrays obesity with sensitivity. “So often we’ve seen weight game costumes that’s like Halloween costumes. This is not that. The price itself to create the film was interesting, it was during covid. I was scanned digitally in my driveway. then a mold was made.”
Brendan spent as much as six hours in the makeup chair each day to fully transform into the character. As we previously reported, Fraser shared that by wearing his prosthetic suit, he “developed muscles I did not know I had. 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 [sense of] 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.”
Meanwhile, Brendan also spoke to Digital Spy about his role in the film, saying the awards buzz around him is “rewarding.” The actor told the publication, “I have a feeling of excited anticipation about what could happen. But I don’t know. No one does. I have an open mind, and I’m looking forward to finding out where this is going to take us. I’m glad it found us where we are now.”
On taking on this role after a six-year acting hiatus, Fraser said he “felt really inspired. And I also felt like it was something I wanted to do so bad, I could feel it in my bones. And the feeling of also having had that many times before in my life – in my career – and seeing that ship sail enough times.”
He added, “I didn’t know if it was really going to come together. It was almost a ‘too good to be true’ kind of feeling until we really got underway. And it never really left me in some ways, until I saw it myself, alone, for the first time. And my jaw dropped.”
The Whale is currently in theaters.
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