Brendan Fraser’s Comeback to Hollywood

Brendan Fraser, who is a 54 year old actor best known for “The Mummy” movies was black listed in 2003 when he was groped by the former president of Hollywood foreign press association, Pillip Berk. In 2013 he was booking work, however after this he took a six year gap without any films at all. In 2021 the movie “The Whale” with director Darren Aronofsky casted Fraser as the lead role of Charlie the morbidly obese recluse. 

“The Whale” was nominated January 24, 2023 and received several academy awards on March 12, 2023. The nominations included Best Actor (Brendan Fraser), Best makeup and hairstyling (The Whale), Best supporting actress (Hong Chau). They won all except best supporting actress. 

“The Whale” itself has been surrounded with controversy. People have been complaining that even though Brendan has gained weight, he hasn’t gained enough to portray this kind of character. They think that someone with obesity should have been cast as the lead. People also believe the film is fatphobic, and dehumanizing. People think that it shows fat people can’t take off the weight even if they want to and shows they are good for binge eating, being depressed and suffering. Fraser wore a fatsuit in the movie which people found to be insensitive to the topic. People also thought that because Charlie was gay, Fraser had no business playing the role because he is a straight actor. 

Personally I like Fraser and I think the movie was great. I think I interpreted it a lot differently than other people though. I disagree with most of the controversy, I think that Fraser is an actor who portrayed the character respectfully and played the character appropriately. I believe people are oversensitive to the topics because they are hot right now. I think if this movie had come out ten years ago, it would have been received differently. I think that Charlie never wanted to take off the weight and I think his slump was to show his depression over everything. 

I think the movie deserved the awards it got and I hope that this is the beginning of Brendans comeback and not the end. I think that he has a lot of talent to give, given the chance.