How far would you go and how long would you wait for your lifelong dream to come true? Are you willing to lose everything in life even if you do nothing wrong and endure injustice?
Oscar winner Brendan Fraser might have the closest answer.
At this hour, it would be utterly unforgivable not to talk about Fraser, who starred in The Whale, playing Charlie, a 600-pound writing professor who tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter after learning his days are numbered. Fraser’s flawless performance put him back into the global spotlight almost immediately. He received standing ovations at numerous screening events, including 6-minute standing ovations at the Venice Film Festival and London Film Festival.
The Best Actor Award is Fraser’s first Academy award. Earlier, he had won the award for Outstanding Performance at the 29th Screen Actor Guild (SAG) Award, and the Best Actor gong at the Critics’ Choice Awards.
“If you told that guy back then I’d be standing here right now, I wouldn’t have believed you…I never would have believed I’d have been offered the role of my life,” Fraser said with tears in his eyes during his acceptance speech at the SAG Awards.
After almost two decades of ‘disappearance’ from Hollywood while at the height of his career, the 54-year-old star was in the process of rebuilding his life. In 2018, he revealed to GQ magazine that he suspected his decline stemmed from an incident of sexual molestation by the then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk. As soon as his story came out, it triggered widespread uproar and raised public awareness that sexual harassment also happens to men.
The association conducted an internal investigation which claimed that Berk’s alleged actions were just “a joke”. Although he did not discuss the issue in public for fear of damaging his career, he noticed invitations to events and offers for movie roles began to disappear around that time. It was then that he suspected of being blacklisted from Hollywood. Coupled with his health issues, multiple operations over a period of seven years, and an expensive divorce, Fraser sank into depression as he began to run out of money and work.
So, when producer and director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Fountain, Black Swan) reached out to him and asked if he was interested to play the role of Charlie, Fraser was “astonished that he even knows who I am.”
Despite the physical and emotional challenges of the role, Fraser said he was excited about it and felt “grateful” for the opportunity.
What happened later is the perfect example of what we, as humans, are capable of when we give our best, as if there were no tomorrow. To Fraser, there was nothing more to lose.
The outcome was a massive comeback, with his name being nominated for more than 50 awards since the movie’s world premiere in Venice last year.
After his film debut in Dogfight in 1991, Fraser won his first leading role in Encino Man the following year, playing a frozen pre-historic caveman. The role earned him the reputation as Hollywood’s new heartthrob which was reinforced in the successful 1997 film George of the Jungle. His real breakthrough did not come until almost ten years later when the then 30-year-old actor landed the leading role in The Mummy. The film became a blockbuster and marked a turning point in his career and, together with its sequel, earned him over $30 million.
Years of experience playing different roles, which garnered several awards along the way, however, failed to make the public and critics take Fraser seriously. His image, at 191cm tall, was always that of a big, funny, goofy guy. Most of the time, he felt the industry saw him as “a piece of meat” due to his physique and looks.
The dark period took a heavy toll on his self-esteem. Fraser felt unworthy and eventually left to spend time with himself, his children, and his horse. “Something good came out of something that was bad. Sometimes it takes a while for that to happen,” he told GQ.
It took two years after that interview for Aronofsky to see Fraser in an old movie trailer and was drawn to his vulnerable quality. Aronofsky, spent 10 years to cast the role of Charlie. “I considered pretty much anyone on the planet to play this role…putting Brendan in the film was a reason to make the movie,” he told Variety.
Fraser, too, admits he couldn’t have played the role of Charlie if the offer had come earlier.
“I didn’t have the life experience or the heartache. I hadn’t been a father long enough ten years ago to appreciate what it means to have a young person in your life,” he said, referring to his three teenage sons whom he had with his exwife, Afton Smith.
Gratitude for opportunities and a deeper understanding of life’s uncertainties are also what Fraser has learned from the ups and downs of his own life.
The actor, well known for his gentleness and generosity, regularly supports charity causes. The Whale also inspired him to take on another cause: Fighting prejudice against obesity. In 2013, he donated his entire salary from Gimme Shelter to charity.
Although the film is truly dark, with its design and script meant to crush your emotions before rapidly uplifting them, it is a story of redemption and hope. When the actor learned that the film inspired those with obesity to seek help, he was elated. “We all approached this piece as if it were the first and last time we would ever have a chance to do this kind of work…I think that this movie can help do a lot of good,” he told the press.
Certainly, the man has learned other important virtues: Faith in doing the right thing and faith in himself and life.
