much has been made about Brandon Fraser’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s whale, Many have praised the actor’s performance, sometimes together Fraser criticized for covering himself in prosthesis To portray an overweight person. Fraser, however, says that while many of the performances may have been other than an actor in a “coarse suit” for laughs, that was not what it was.
speaking with deadline, Brendan Fraser talked about the experience of spending four hours in prosthetics to transform him into his character. And the prosthetics were very much a part of the performance. They followed the “laws of physics and gravity” and since the character of Charlie had significant mobility issues, the same was true for Fraser when he was in full makeup. he explained…
It was cumbersome, with good reason. Because putting an actor in a costume, a device, to simulate weight gain for the character has, in years past, cut corners on authenticity. It is usually the silhouette of a costume worn by a fairly athletic actor and is in service of a cheap joke or to spoof a character.
while there have been others who feel that Casting Brendan Fraser instead of an appropriately sized actorWasn’t the best call, it’s clear the team is making whale What could they have done to not make Charlie’s character come off as some kind of joke. The prosthetics were made to be as realistic as possible. Fraser himself met obesity advocates To better understand what kind of character he is playing.
Brendan Fraser clearly draws a line what some actors have done to make themselves look fat for comedic purposes, and what whale was doing with him. In this case, it looks like intent plays a big part of things. The goal was to make everything as real to the character’s experience as possible. When Deadline’s reporter mentioned the term “fat suit,” Fraser made it clear that’s not what she was wearing, saying…
You’ll never hear me say that.
It’s certainly understandable why Brendan Fraser didn’t see what he was doing very similar to a “fat suit”. When we think of fat suits we think of Mike Myers playing Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers movie or Weird Al in the music video for “Fat”. They too were created with makeup and prosthetics, but authenticity was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind in those cases.
Intent certainly matters, and whale is a film that tries to handle sensitive subjects properly. Many believe the film does just that, and Fraser may be taking home the Oscar because of it.