
Brendan Fraser says he hopes that his controversial comeback function will “change” the way in which society perceives and treats fats individuals amid mounting criticism.
Fraser will star in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming movie “The Whale,” which is able to hit theaters in December. Fraser performs Charlie, a 600-pound homosexual man who's attempting to reconnect along with his estranged daughter whereas grieving the lack of a lover.
Fraser additionally wears a fats swimsuit within the film — a apply that Hollywood has traditionally used to stigmatize individuals with bigger our bodies.
The act — together with its connotations that being fats is a joke, disgusting or a private failing — has additionally made it harder for plus-sized actors to get roles.
“I’m not a small man,” Fraser instructed Newsweekwhen he was requested about criticism surrounding his fats swimsuit on the BFI London Movie Competition this week. “And I don’t know what the metric is to qualify to play the function. I solely know that I needed to give as trustworthy a efficiency as I can.”
Fraser additionally expressed to Newsweek that he hopes his flip as Charlie will assist shatter stereotypes.
“I’m hopeful that we are able to change some hearts and minds no less than by way of how we expect and really feel about those that dwell with weight problems,” he mentioned.
“So usually, these persons are dismissed in our society, or the article of scorn and derision, and it’s unfair to them. I consider that shaming individuals for that cause is nearly the final area of prejudice that we overlook, and I feel we are able to do higher to vary that. So I hope that this movie may change some hearts and minds.”
Though critics who've seen the movie agree that Fraser’s efficiency in “The Whale” is the spotlight of the film, others have expressed concern over how director Aronofsky portrays fats individuals.
This has resulted in lots of expressing conflicting emotions about “The Whale” being billed as Fraser’s huge comeback function.
Sarah Marrs of Lainey Gossip mentioned in her evaluate of “The Whale” that though “Fraser makes his efficiency not about Charlie’s physique however about Charlie’s regrets,” Aronofsky appears to view the character in another way.
Marrs wrote that Aronofsky is “cinematically occupied with the bounds and grotesqueries of the human physique, [and] DOES make the movie about Charlie’s physique.” Marrs famous that the film’s rating “swells” each time it’s centered on Charlie’s physicality, and that the sounds of the character consuming are amplified “rendering a organic necessity disgusting in context of a fats individual doing it.”
Marrs wrote that Aronofsky makes “a spectacle of the massive man binging, which in flip degrades Charlie and provides the viewers permission to, say, snigger at a scene by which Charlie can not bend sufficient to succeed in one thing he’s dropped.”
“The viewers’s laughter and infrequently audible revulsion are outcomes of Aronofsky’s selections, which don't lengthen compassion to a person caught in an emotional maelstrom however turns weight problems right into a sideshow,” she continued.
Katie Rife, a movie critic who reviewed “The Whale” for Polygon, slammed the movies’ fatphobic messaging on Twitter after watching it on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition in September.
Rife additionally warned in her spoiler-heavy Twitter thread that individuals who have skilled disordered consuming could discover “it extremely triggering.”
In the meantime, Aronofsky instructed Newsweek that plenty of the damaging chatter across the movie are from those who “haven't seen the movie.”
“So I welcome everybody to see the movie as a result of the movie is about bringing empathy to characters that you simply don’t count on to really feel for,” he mentioned.
With reference to Fraser sporting a fats swimsuit, Aronofsky instructed the outlet that it was a necessity.
“There’s no manner you may solid somebody to play this job, so we had to make use of make-up to get there,” he mentioned.
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