Watch: Brendan Fraser got emotional with a 6-minute standing ovation for his performance
Today, at one of the world’s most famous film festivals, Brendan Fraser was so moved by a scene in the film The Whale that he broke down in tears and received a six-minute standing ovation.
The six-minute standing ovation that Fraser received left him in tears and put him in the running for this year’s Best Actor Oscar.
People including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Nick Kroll, and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin were all spotted inside the Big Room Theater, with Abedin sitting just a few rows behind Fraser and crying just as much as him. Many more audience members likewise wiped their eyes with their handkerchiefs during the film’s devastating conclusion.
In The Whale, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink plays Fraser’s estranged 17-year-old daughter. Fraser plays an overweight dad trying to reunite with his daughter. The cast also features Hong Chao, Samantha Morton, and Ty Simpkins in supporting roles. The screenplay for the film was adapted by Aronofsky from Samuel D. Hunter’s play of the same name.
Fraser used a prosthetic costume that added anywhere from fifty to three hundred pounds to his weight so that he could play the film’s title character. Each day, the actor spent up to six hours in the makeup chair completely immersing himself in the role. Fraser said his prosthetic costume was “amazing” in an interview before the film’s debut in Venice “The torso piece was almost like a straitjacket with sleeves that, touched up by hand, looked identical. just like human skin, right down to the hand-cut hair.”
Wearing the prosthetic outfit “I developed muscles I didn’t know I had,” Fraser told reporters in Venice.”I even got seasick at the end of the day when they took all the hardware off; it was like stepping off the dock on a boat in Venice. She gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are the same. You need to be an incredibly strong person, both mentally and physically, to live in this physical being.”
“The applause when Fraser’s name appeared on the screen during the screening of The Whale? My God, I’m ready for the Brenacimiento!” A film critic named Pernille Middelthon who was in attendance at the festival remarked on it.