Casting Brendan Fraser in The Whale was clearly the right call for director Darren Aronofsky. The actor's involvement has created great hype for the film ahead of its wide theatrical release, and with its early reviews, The Whale has been generating Oscar buzz for Fraser. He was just recently nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the film, even if we shouldn't expect him to attend the ceremony.
But finding the perfect star to lead the film wasn't an easy task for Aronofsky. In a new interview with Deadline, the filmmaker reflects on the lengthy process of getting The Whale made, going back a decade. One of the film's biggest challenges was with finding an actor who could portray Charlie, the 600-pound recluse at the center of the story, in the way that Aronfosky had envisioned. As the director explains, it took ten years of considering pretty much every other actor in Hollywood until he just happened to catch the trailer for a foreign film featuring Fraser. At that moment, everything clicked.
"Over the ten years that I had it, there was never really an actor that got me excited to really do this. I thought of everyone in different ways thinking about it. But, none of it really kind of clicked or made sense. And then I saw the trailer of a kind of low-budget Brazilian movie, and he had a supporting role - Brendan - and a light bulb went off. I said, 'What about that guy?' To be really transparent, I didn't really know any of his work that much. I had seen the Mummys, but I hadn't seen George of the Jungle or Encino Man, and I had seen none of the dramatic work... but it was a real gut feeling: 'I like this guy.'"
Aronofsky also explained how something else that was appealing about Fraser is that he still hadn't yet shown off everything in his toolbox as a dramatic actor, unlike some others in Hollywood who filmgoers may come to expect a certain kind of performance from.
"Once a movie star, always a movie star, but the best part of that is he's a movie star who hasn't shown his goods in a long time. Like, a lot of movie stars, you see so much of them, 'Okay, I get what they're going to do.' Not all of 'em are Meryl Streep, every performance is different. So, I was excited by that. And then he came into my office in Chinatown, and besides being an utter gentleman, it was just clear he had a lot to give, and he hadn't been given the opportunity to show it, and he wanted to."
The Whale Could Very Well Win Brendan Fraser the Oscar
Samuel D. Hunter, who also created the stage show that The Whale is based on, penned the screenplay for the feature film adaptation. Jeremy Dawson and Ari Handel produced with Aronofsky. Along with Fraser, the film stars Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton.
The Whale is playing in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and it will open up nationwide on Dec. 21, 2022. You can watch the official trailer below.