US actor Brendan Fraser played down early awards buzz for his lead role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which launches today in Competition at Venice.
“It is to be told,” said Fraser of the idea that the film will send his career in a different direction. “My crystal ball is broken – I don’t know if yours works. It was a great opportunity to step into the physical, corporal being of another man, and the internal life story that he carries with him. I don’t know an actor in my peer group that wouldn’t want to work with Darren.”
“I’m just trying to stay in today,” said the actor of the possibility of awards. “I guess all I have to deal with is your good selves for the moment. I’m looking forward to how this film makes a deep impression on everyone as much as it has on me.”
In The Whale, Fraser plays Charlie, a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity, who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
The Whale is an A24 production, produced by Aronofsky, Jeremy Dawson and Ari Handel. A24 will release in the US, and is also selling the film, with deals already in place for territories including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Australia/New Zealand.
The film takes place entirely within one room. “I started in this business with $20,000 dollars and a dream,” said Aronofsky of the limitation, referencing his debut film Pi. “I learnt back then that your boundaries are not chains, they’re your gateway to freedom. As a filmmaker, as soon as you have anything limited, it’s very exciting.”
Long casting
The filmmaker said it took 10 years to bring The Whale to screens, “because it took 10 years to cast the film.”
“I considered everyone – all different types of actors, every single movie star on the planet. But none of it ever really clicked – it didn’t move me, it didn’t feel right,” said Aronofsky.
It was when seeing Fraser in the trailer for a Brazilian film that “a lightbulb went off” – an impression that only increased when he tested opposite Stranger Things star Sadie Sink as his daughter.
That test took place on February 26, 2020; with the subsequent pandemic putting the film on hold. But when shooting became possible again in 2021, The Whale was the ideal project.
“The Whale is five actors in a room,” said Aronofsky. “That’s really controllable, we can have protection against Covid. No-one got sick on set.”
Aronofsky said he believes strongly in the battle against cynicism, citing a line from the Samuel D Hunter’s play on which The Whale is based – ‘people are incapable of not caring’.
“The cynical point of view is alive and well, but it’s at war with Charlie’s hope ad love and vision of the world,” he said.
“That’s the most important message to put out in the world right now. Everybody’s leaning into the cynicism and the darkness and giving up hope; and it’s exactly what we don’t need right now. We have to lean into that underneath it all, we all do care about each other.”
The Whale premieres this evening in the Sala Grande; tomorrow’s world premieres include Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling and Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin.
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