Darren Aronofsky's The Whale may be one of the year's most anticipated films, but there are those who aren't quite as thrilled about its release. Directed by Aronofsky, the film follows Brendan Fraser as a 600-pound gay man hoping to reconnect with his daughter (Sadie Sink) years after abandoning his family. For Fraser to effectively play the role, use of a "fatsuit" was required, something that Fraser has said gives him a greater understanding of what daily life is like for people with that body type.
The Whale may have gotten Fraser a standing ovation with its premiere, but for actor and comedian Guy Branum, who appears in the new movie Bros, the movie is "problematic." For starters, Branum feels the issues with The Whale go all the way down to its conception, unhappy with the pain he feels as "an actual fat gay person" should not be dramatized by filmmakers. As Branum tells PRIDE:
“I think that the source material of The Whale is problematic. I think that it’s trying to use extreme fatness as a metaphor for gay pain. And as an actual fat gay person, I feel like my life doesn’t need to be a metaphor for somebody else’s pain."
Branum also takes issue with the casting of Fraser in the lead role, suggesting that choosing the George of the Jungle star over an obese gay actor takes away from the movie's authenticity.
"I also have real problems with the fact that they cast a straight actor who is not very fat, and [who] used prosthetics to represent fatness, in the film. I think it allows people to talk about that character as an object in a way that wouldn’t be possible if it were an actual fat person who you had to look in the eyes.”
Others Have Criticized Brendan Fraser's Casting
Just recently, Mean Girls and Looking actor Daniel Franzese also spoke out about the casting of Brendan Fraser in The Whale. Franzese was a bit more king when speaking of Fraser, making it clear he has great respect for the actor and is happy to see him earning praise for his role in the movie. At the same time, Franzese couldn't help but feel slighted that he couldn't have had the chance to read for a role like that, feeling he may have better connected with it. Franzese told People:
"I love Brendan Fraser, [so] I'm very conflicted... He's a lovely man. And it's great. But why? Why go up there and wear a fat suit to play a 400-lb. queer man? To finally have a chance to be in a prestige film that might be award-nominated, where stories about people who look like us are being told? That's the dream. So when they go time and time again and cast someone like Brendan Fraser, me and the other big queer guys, we're like, 'What the ... ?' We can't take it! I would have loved to have read for this. I mean, who knows more about being an obese queer man than an obese queer man?"
The casting of Fraser was not a decision Darren Aronofsky took lightly. He had actually spent a decade considering different possibilities for the role, but no matter which Hollywood star he looked at, no one seemed to click. As Aronofsky told Variety, he was sold on Fraser when he just so happened to catch the actor in a Brazilian movie trailer, and from there, the casting fell into place.
“I considered everyone — all types of different actors, every single movie star on the planet. But none of them ever really clicked. It just didn’t move me, or feel right. A couple years ago, I caught a trailer from a Brazilian movie, a low-budget [movie], and I saw Brendan in the trailer and a lightbulb went off. I hadn’t seen Gods and Monsters or George of the Jungle. Seeing him in there, it just clicked. I asked Brendan to come meet me…it just kept clicking.”
You won't see Guy Branum in The Whale, though you can catch Brendan Fraser in that film when it is released in theaters on Dec. 9, 2022. As for where you can see Branum, he can currently be seen on the big screen in Bros, now playing in theaters everywhere.