The Whale, Brendan Fraser’s comeback movie, had its world premiere at the 78th Venice Film Festival to a thunderous ovation. Fraser plays a 600-pound gay man who is stuck in a wheelchair in the Darren Aronofsky drama. The actor reportedly got emotional when the film got a six-minute standing ovation after the credits rolled.
Reports say that Fraser cried when he saw how people liked his movie. Early responses to the festival show that Fraser’s performance makes him a strong candidate for an Oscar. During the standing ovation, Fraser and Aronofsky gave each other a heartfelt hug. After the movie, Fraser took a bow as the cheers got louder.
Fraser plays a man in the movie The Whale who is very overweight and has a hard time keeping in touch with his 17-year-old daughter, who is played by Sadie Sink from the show Stranger Things. In small roles, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton, and Hong Chau also appear in the movie. Brendan has been in Hollywood for a long time. He has been in popular TV shows like “The Mummy.”
The Whale is Fraser’s first important movie since Breakout, an action movie that came out in 2013 and was only available on DVD. Brendan reportedly gained 50–300 pounds for his role in the Darren Aronofsky movie. He did this by putting on a prosthetic suit. When asked about wearing the prosthetics during the press conference in Venice, the actor told Variety, “I even felt dizzy at the end of the day when all the devices were taken off. It was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice.”
