Brendan Fraser says that there’s a ‘best-kept secret’ that actors all have that allows them to show another side to themselves when immersing themselves in a role. Here’s Fraser exposing just that in the trailer for his new film The Whale.
After the first few showings of Fraser’s new film – in which he plays a 600lb man trying to redevelop a relationship with his 17-year-old daughter – the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, with the showing at Venice Film Festival receiving a six-minute standing ovation, with particular praise reserved for Fraser’s performance.
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In a new interview in which the star of The Mummy series had a conversation with Freddie Prinze Jr., Fraser revealed the ‘physical rigour’ that he had to go through in order to take the role to the level he wanted, as well as discussing the ‘secret’ that he believes all actors share that allows them to reveal parts of themselves through roles.
Speaking about the prosthetics that Fraser had to wear for the role, Prinze said: “Anytime I see an actor go through the prosthetic process, I’m always impressed and wish I could be there.
“Could you talk about the process? Because it’s not an easy one.”
Fraser responded: “Is it because we want to disappear, Freddie?”
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Freddie joked: “That’s what a psychiatrist told me.”
However, it seems as if there’s a serious element to that.
Fraser went on: “We actors always go, ‘I want to disappear into this role,’ and it’s a way to do it so that you can be unrecognizable and show a different side of yourself, and have that layer of protection going, ‘It’s not really me. It’s the mask.’
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“It’s like a best-kept secret. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about it?”
One thing they did talk about is the seriously tough process that Fraser went through for the role, spending hours in the make-up department and wearing a suit that weighed around 300lbs.
He explained: “I went through a lot of Gatorade and water.
“Those were just the physical rigours of playing the role. And I’m fine with that.
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“You can light me on fire, push me off camels, beat me up, throw me down, and I’ll get up, patch it up, and try it again until it doesn’t work anymore.
“But it felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done was playing Charlie in The Whale.”
He added: “There was very little CGI in use.
“Erroneously, people have critiqued this film for being a CGI creation. Sorry, it’s not.
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“With the exception of maybe putting a light curative on something where you would see the seam, or if the fabric wouldn’t conform to the human body, that might get a quick fix."
“At one point, Charlie removes his shirt to go to sleep—that was a torso piece, it went on like if you were to wear a cardigan backwards. Other than that, Charlie’s body was two arms that attached at the sleeves, feet and legs that came up to about mid-thigh, and I wore a five-point harness underneath it—shoulder, shoulder, hip, hip, groin.
“We never weighed the parts, by the way. People asked, ‘How heavy was that?’
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“I don’t know. I don’t care. It was encumbering, that’s all you need to know.
“As long as it looked the way it was supposed to, that’s all that mattered.
“The makeup took four hours, and with practice we got it down to two and a half, depending on if Charlie had to walk or was just seated.”
It sounds as if his hard work paid off though, as Fraser’s performance has been a highlight of many critics’ reviews, meaning that we might be seeing a lot more of him in future, which is great.
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The Whale is scheduled for release on December 9.
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Tom Wood