Brendan Fraser Praised By Stranger Things Star As Their “Favorite Human On The Planet”
Is anyone surprised?
One of the next films we’ll see Brendan Fraser in is expected to be unlike any other film he’s ever been in. Currently in post-production, Fraser will play the morbidly obese recluse Charlie in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming psychological drama The Whale. He’ll be joined by Sadie Sink, best known as Max on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Sink recently shared that she thinks Fraser is just about the best human we have.
Sink was talking with Vanity Fair when the subject of The Whale came up, she said that the upcoming drama had more “character work” than any project she’d worked on. She also heaped praise on her collaborators, saying, “Darren Aronofsky is obviously brilliant, and working with him was a really formative experience, and Brendan is so incredible in it, and also just probably my favorite human on the planet. It was so amazing having that experience with him.”
The Stranger Things star will play Charlie’s daughter Ellie in The Whale. The character Brendan Fraser plays abandoned Ellie and her mother Mary (Samantha Morton) after moving in with his lover Alan. When we meet Charlie he is alone and has been dealing with his pain with compulsive overeating; eventually winding up at a weight of around 600 pounds. Charlie supports himself as an online writing tutor, and he experiences an unexpected inspiration while reviewing one of his students’ essays about the Herman Melville classic Moby Dick.
The Whale is based on the 2012 play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter who adapted the script for the screen. Along with Brendan Fraser and the other actors already mentioned, the film stars Hong Chau (Watchmen) as Charlie’s friend and confidante Liz, and Ty Simpkins (Insidious) will play Thomas, a religious man looking to convert Charlie.
While talking about the film in October, Brendan Fraser said The Whale would “be like something you haven’t seen before.” Unsurprisingly, Fraser said playing a 600 pound man necessitated prosthetics which he described as “extensive, seamless, cumbersome.” Considering Darren Aronofsky is directing the film, The Whale is also expected to use those prosthetics for disturbing visuals. As the director of films like Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream; Aronofsky is known for both moving and upsetting imagery. There’s no firm release date for The Whale yet though it’s expected to drop some time in 2022.
Also possibly coming out this year is Batgirl, in which Brendan Fraser will make his DCEU debut as Garfield Lynns, aka the pyromaniac villain Firefly. Fraser will be joined Leslie Grace as the eponymous hero, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, and Michel Keaton as the iconic Batman. Batgirl was originally scheduled to stream exclusively on HBO Max some time in 2022, but there has since been rumblings that Warner Bros. Discovery might be looking into a theatrical release. You can see some of the first shots of Fraser as Lynns below.
In November, Brendan Fraser will make his first appearance in a Martin Scorsese directed Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon. Fraser will be a part of the usual kind of ensemble cast you can expect in a Scorcese film, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, and more.
