'The Whale' Trailer Featuring Brendan Fraser Is Haunting
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The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, is the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky, and A24 has released the official trailer.
Fraser plays Charlie, a teacher weighed down figuratively and literally with 600 pounds of guilt.
After leaving his family to be in a relationship with his now-deceased gay partner, Fraser’s character attempts to rebuild a relationship with his teenage daughter, played by Sadie Sink from Stranger Things. The story follows Charlie’s struggle with compulsive eating brought on by a grief-triggered deep depression.
Hollywood artists constructed a bodysuit for the film that combined latex and physical attributes with digitally created and 3D-printed prosthetics.
Fraser’s remarkable transformation and raw emotion throughout the film have earned the actor some Oscar buzz.
The film debuted in September at the Venice Film Festival.
Audiences reportedly gave the film a six-minute standing ovation, according to CNN.
“Do you ever get the feeling people are incapable of not caring?” Fraser asks hauntingly in the trailer as he’s shown with an oxygen nasal cannula and beads of sweat dripping down his face.
“People are amazing,” he says as the one-minute-long trailer concludes.
In it, viewers only see Fraser briefly twice, but in those two brief moments, he conveys his character’s struggles.
The trailer offers a brief glimpse of Sink’s distressed portrayal of Charlie’s 17-year-old daughter. The film also stars Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton, and Ty Simpkins.
Some controversy has developed along the periphery of The Whale, with critics using fatphobic language and some arguing that Fraser should not have worn what they call a “fat suit.”
Fraser told Vanity Fair that he worked with Obesity Action Coalition in preparation for the role.
Fraser immersed himself in the disorder of compulsive binge eating, learning the particulars of the disease. He also spoke with patients who underwent bariatric or weight loss surgery, the outlet reports.
“I learned quickly that it takes an incredibly strong person inside that body to be that person,” Fraser said. “That seemed fitting and poetic and practical to me, all at once.”
Related: Brendan Fraser's Portrayal of Gay Man in 'The Whale' Earns Oscar Buzz
Watch The Whale trailer here:
