Brandan Fraser’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s film has been talked about a lot. The whale. Many praised the actor’s performance, sometimes criticizing Fraser for wearing a prosthetic to play an extremely overweight man. Fraser, however, says that while many performances may make an actor in a “big suit” laugh, that’s not what he was.
Speaking with Deadline, Brendan Fraser talked about the experience of spending four hours wearing prosthetics to transform him into his character. And the prosthetics were a big part of the performance. They followed the “laws of physics and gravity” and as Charlie’s character had significant mobility issues, so did Fraser when in full makeup. He explained…
It was heavy, for good reason. Because putting an actor in a costume, a gimmick, to mimic the character’s weight gain has reduced authenticity in the past. It is usually the silhouette of a costume worn by a fairly athletic actor who is in the service of a cheap joke or to denigrate a character.
Although some feel that casting Brendan Fraser, rather than an actor of adequate size, was not the best decision, it is clear that the team that made The whale they did their best to make the character of Charlie seem not some kind of joke. The prostheses were designed to be as realistic as possible. Fraser himself met with obesity advocates to better understand the type of character he would play.
Brendan Fraser makes a clear distinction between what some artists have done to look fat for comedic purposes and what The whale done with him. In this case, it seems like intention is a big part of things. The goal was to make everything as real as possible to the character experience. When Deadline’s reporter brought up the term “big suit,” Fraser clarified it wasn’t what he was wearing, saying…
You will never hear me say this.
It’s certainly understandable that Brendan Fraser doesn’t see what happened as anything like a “fat suit.” When we think of fat suits, we think of Mike Myers playing Fat Bastard in an Austin Powers movie or Weird Al in the “Fat” music video. They were also created with makeup and prosthetics, but authenticity was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind in these instances.
Intention certainly matters, e.g The whale it is a film that tries to adequately address sensitive issues. Many believe the film does just that and that Fraser could win an Oscar for it.
Source: Cinemablend
