Brendan Fraser fought back tears when “Whale” received a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere on Sunday. The crowd stood for about five minutes until the festival organizers calmed down from applause to begin a question-and-answer session. The reception was one of the strongest so far at this year’s festival, a gathering that included the premieres of Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
TIFF is set to be a big festival for Fraser even before the critically acclaimed “The Whale” show. The actor received a TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the 2022 festival, with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey saying, “Brendan Fraser delivers an astonishing performance of depth, power, and nuance in The Whale. This former Torontonian was an action movie star, and screen comedy, And a romantic hero. We’re thrilled to welcome him home as the actor behind one of the year’s best shows.”
“Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky, stars Fraser as an obese man who struggles to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter, played by “Stranger Things” artist Sadie Sink. The supporting cast also includes Hong Chao, Samantha Morton, and Ty Simpkins. The film is based on the play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter, who adapted the theatrical script to feature Aronofsky.
The film kicked off at the Venice Film Festival, where it was met with a standing ovation for 6 minutes that left Fraser in tears. At one point the actor even left the Venice theater, but the flowing applause was so loud that he stayed longer and bowed. diverse He wrote from Venice that The Whale “will likely put Fraser in the lead for best actor in this year’s Oscar race.”
To play the main character in the film, Fraser wore a prosthetic suit that added between 50 and 300 pounds given the scene. The actor spent up to six hours in the makeup chair each day to fully transform into the character.
“I developed muscles I didn’t know I had,” Fraser told reporters at the Venice press conference about wearing the prosthetic suit. “I even got dizzy at the end of the day when I had all the hardware removed; it was like getting off the pier on a boat in Venice. [sense of] crispy. She gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are the same. You need to be an incredibly strong person, both mentally and physically, to live in this physical being.”
In his review of “The Whale” Out of Venice, diverse Film critic Owen Gleiberman called Fraser “smarter, shrewd, and more exciting than he’s ever been”, adding that he delivers “a lively, intensely moving performance”.
A24 The Whale will be released in theaters December 9.
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