Brendan Fraser in The WhaleHollywood star Brendan Fraser was emotional after he received the TIFF Tribute award for his performance in The Whale. In the film, Brendan plays the role of Charlie, a man, living with severe obesity, struggling to connect with his daughter.
During his award acceptance speech, Brendan said, “This is new for me. I am normally the guy at the podium who hands these things out—I got pretty good at it. Apart from being a part of this impressive and ensemble cast, the last time I waited to hear my name to be called out to receive an award was in Grade 4, and it was the Pee Whee bowling league—it gets better, it was a little cup and it had the words ‘high game handicap’ and to this day I don’t know what that means. But mom said it was a great award!”
The Whale received a standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival recently. The crowd stood for approximately five minutes till the festival organisers quietened the applause and began the Q&A session with Brendan Fraser, director Darren Aronofsky, writer Samuel D. Hunter and cast members Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins.
Speaking about the film, Brendan, as quoted by Variety, had said, “You need to be an incredibly strong individual to be that man. Because at the end of the day, I could take the apparatus off and, while I felt dizziness, something about that stayed with me… I learned that when you just invest everything you can and give it what you’ve got as if it’s the first and last time you ever will, something important can come of that. And I think that with your help we might be able to change some hearts and minds.”