Brendan Fraser says that his role in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale has made him more discerning about which projects to take on in the future.
Speaking to Collider ahead of the film's December 9 release, the actor shared that playing the housebound, morbidly obese Charlie is leading him towards more roles that "speak to a broader common humanity."
"The hope is that you'll find material that's meaningful to not only everyone creating it, but your audience too. That can be a big ask sometimes when looking for something interesting to do," the George of the Jungle actor said, adding that trying to connect more with the audience doesn't mean he feels he'll have to sacrifice the kind of projects he cares about.
He adds, "I just know that I feel I have been changed in a sense that I really want to work on projects that, honestly, I just care more about. I love to make people laugh. I love to have something exciting or interesting or innovative happen when I work on a film, but if there's something there that can speak to a broader common humanity that we all share, I want to a part of something like that."
Fraser Shares Real-Life Inspiration Behind Charlie's Character
Although The Whale was inspired by the life of author Samuel D. Hunter, who wrote the play the film is based on, Fraser says that he turned to real-life obese people to inform his performance beyond the written dialogue. Explaining that he prepared for the role by speaking with members of online support group Obesity Action Coalition, Fraser used their stories to drive his moving performance—and spoke to the broader humanity of a group often dehumanized by society.
"Those that I was in touch with gave me the most vulnerable and sincere stories, their testimonial about what their life [is] now, as it was when they were children, and what their hopes were," Fraser says. "These [were] people who were possibly awaiting a bariatric procedure, who had one. At any rate, they were people who had either gone through a huge transition or they're about to where they're stuck somewhere in between. And for what I learned from them was we're just all people at the end of the day. We all are. And it's difficult to connect with those that we love the most when we are confronted [with] society [doing] its very best to dismiss them."
He noted, "This is a story that lets us look inside Charlie's apartment. It opens the door and invites us in to see who he is and the challenges he has."
Those challenges include Charlie trying to reconnect with his daughter (played by Sadie Sink) after having left his family for his lover years prior. Earning an impressive standing ovation at its premiere, it's safe to say that Fraser's emotional performance was a success—and he credits it all to his conversations with Obesity Action Coalition members.
"I felt that everything I learned by that consultation definitely informed who Charlie was," he added.