How Much Weight Did Brendan Fraser Actually Gain For The Whale?

Publish date: 2024-05-09

Brendan Fraser’s redemption arc can be mentioned to be now entire, following the sensational good fortune of his mental drama movie The Whale. In the movie, the actor played a 600-pound, middle-aged, homosexual man named Charlie who has isolated himself from the world and is making an attempt to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Ellie (played via Sadie Sink). Charlie’s handiest buddy is a nurse named Liz (performed by means of Hong Chau), who is helping him together with his day-to-day needs.

The Whale is the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky, in all probability another way perfect recognized for helming the extensively acclaimed drama thriller Black Swan from 2010. Like that individual film, The Whale has been a major success, although it can't fairly compare relating to field office returns.

Where the more moderen image did match up was in its efficiency at the Academy Awards.The Whale was once nominated for 3 Oscars, the place Black Swan was once up in 5 other categories. At the finish of the day, although, the more moderen film walked away with two wins (including the “Best Actor” gong for Fraser himself), while the older one simplest won one.

RELATED: The Best Brendan Fraser Roles To Watch Before We See His Major Comeback In The Whale

To play the role of Charlie in The Whale, Fraser understandably had to gain some weight. He was once additionally helped to achieve the glance thanks to the use of a prosthetic suit, and he has since shed the extra pounds he had placed on for the film. But simply how much weight had he gained in the first position?

Brendan Fraser Almost Missed Out On A Role In The Whale

For the rest of time, the function of Charlie in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale will at all times be related to Brendan Fraser. Things can have been very other, however, given the path that the producers at the start sought after to move in. Late night time host James Corden printed in conversation with Deadline that he auditioned for the section, and was seriously considered for it.

The British comedian also claimed that type icon and filmmaker Tom Ford was in line to direct. “I was going to play [Charlie in The Whale], and Tom Ford was going to direct,” stated Corden. Those plans did not materialize, then again, with the respective roles going to Fraser and Aronofsky as a substitute.

RELATED: The Cast Of Brendan Fraser's The Whale, Ranked By Net Worth

In yet another twist to the story, regardless that, Aronofsky was largely unaware of Fraser’s past work. That was once until he happened upon a trailer video for the actor’s 2006 independent mystery movie Journey to the End of the Night. According to the director, a mild bulb went off in his head and he knew he had found his guy for the job.

How Much Weight Did Brendan Fraser Put On For The Whale?

Gaining or losing loads of weight for a role is not anything new in Hollywood. Christian Bale is certainly one of the most famed approach actors, and has long gone through extreme physical transformations for more than a few roles. In 2018, for example, he performed former Vice President Dick Cheney in the political black comedy film Vice. Cheney is comparatively much more heavyset than Bale, and the actor needed to gain as much as Forty pounds to play the baby-kisser.

This was once a precedent that Brendan Fraser might have regarded to when making ready for his role in The Whale, even though the instances did vary in quite a lot of ways. To start with, Charlie’s 600 kilos would were too much to place on, even for the maximum devoted of means actors.

RELATED: How Brendan Fraser Underwent Significant Body Changes During His Toughest Time In Hollywood

To help the procedure, the production staff constructed a 300 lbs prosthetic suit for Fraser and also included some CGI components. Before The Whale, he used to be estimated to have weighed around 209 lbs. After placing on the prosthetic, the ultimate 91 kilos is what would had been accounted for in CGI and some weight gain.

Brendan Fraser Admitted His Transformation In The Whale Was “Risky”

The depiction of obesity in The Whale is in all probability the simplest element of the movie that has come in for complaint in some sections. A GQ think piece on the subject said: “The Whale has been framed as “necessary”, for daring to show the fact of any individual dwelling with obesity, however it doesn't move a conversation forward. Instead, it grounds it firmly in the mud.”

There have been many such blended reactions to Brendan Fraser’s apparent weight gain for The Whale. Following the unlock of the film in December 2022, he sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He was asked about the polarized reaction, and he admitted that there was a degree of risk interested by his bodily transformation. He saw it all as a good challenge, all the identical.

“You're allowed to take risks in art. You must pass toward the threat, where the maximum growth will come, and incessantly the place the most interesting choices are made,” Fraser mentioned. “I know that to be true, for the reason that this film was once directed by means of Darren Aronofsky, a world-class filmmaker who continuously demanding situations the human condition and not leaves simple solutions for us to ponder.”

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