Brendan Fraser transformed dramatically for his smash hit The Whale. To play Charlie, an obese protagonist weighing 600 pounds (272 kg), the actor reportedly donned 300 pounds (136 kg) of prosthetics. To be clear, Fraser did not gain weight.
What prosthetics did Brendan Fraser wear in The Whale?
Adrien Morot has received his second Oscar nomination (shared with makeup artist Judy Chin and hair artist Annemarie Bradley) for creating the prosthetic fat suit Brendan Fraser wore to play a 600-pound man in The Whale.
In The Whale, however, Charlie does not lose weight; the transformation goes in the opposite direction: he gets bigger and bigger, suffering a slow and painful physical breakdown. As I watched the film, I started to understand, with a looming sense of dread, that The Whale had no plans to recuperate this character.
The Whale ending explored Charlie's desire to help Ellie find happiness before he dies. This is the only way he feels will absolve him of his past mistakes. Thomas also wants to be redeemed by bringing Charlie back to religion and puts forth tremendous effort to do so.
The Whale is not a true story but is based on a 2012 play by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the film. Dale Calandra played the original Charlie in a similar transformation to Fraser's for The Whale movie, during the play's original run at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater in Chicago.
Watch Brendan Fraser's TRANSFORMATION for The Whale
How did Brendan Fraser lose weight?
Emphasizing whole, nutrient-rich foods over processed options, Fraser's approach underscores the adage "you are what you eat." His diet focused on lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, facilitating not just weight loss but improved overall health.
"[Fraser] came to visit me and was just an incredible gentleman and a beautiful guy," Aronofsky recalls. "[He] was also, which is very key for directors, really hungry to work, and I knew because of the demands of the film that it would take someone with a drive like that."
The religious themes of the movie suggest that Charlie did in fact die and go to heaven in the end, but they may have just alluded to a kind of spiritual peace or death of ego that does not necessarily imply a physical death.
Charlie eats to sadly harm himself. He is the manifestation of trauma. That what he puts into his body for all that harm that he has endured all his life, he's been derided. It's manifest on who he is as a human being, that's a lot of pain for this man.
Having grown angry at the world due to him abandoning her and her mother for his late boyfriend Alan, she acts hostile and abusive to anyone she comes close to and wants absolutely nothing to do with Charlie, who makes efforts to try and reconnect with her.
What is the controversy about the movie The Whale?
Why is The Whale being accused of fatphobia? Some of the film's critics believe it perpetuates tired tropes of fat people as suffering, chronically depressed and binge eating.
Over the course of The Whale, we learn that Charlie ended his marriage to his wife Mary as he was hiding his homosexuality until he fell in love with a man named Alan. This resulted in Charlie losing contact with his daughter Ellie, which he has always felt guilty about.
The Whale is a film that feels uncomfortable. The subject matter is uncomfortable; not only is it about a man struggling with obesity, but it is also about someone dying from congestive heart disease, someone who is estranged from their family, and the entire film takes place in one space.
Brendan Fraser describes transformation into 600-pound man for 'The Whale' The actor compared the prosthetic suit he wore for the film to a "straight jacket," saying it added up to 300 pounds of weight.
But Fraser has his reasons; issues with his own health and his mothers who has since passed away, personal issues, and being the target of sexual harassment have been cited as reasons he left and stayed away. A journey from which, according to his last performance, he seems to have recovered successfully.
What happened to Brendan Fraser's career before The Whale?
His career deteriorated, his marriage broke down and Fraser faded into obscurity. That is until director Darren Aronofsky resurrected his career with The Whale, which is based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter of the same name.
In order to play Charlie, a character who weighs 600 pounds, Fraser had to wear a prosthetic 'fat suit' that took four hours to put on each day. A time-lapse video of Fraser's transformation shows the make-up team working on creating his fuller face before fitting him into a body suit.
TRIGGER WARNING: The script for this film contains extensive fatphobia. Backstories involve homophobic abuse, particularly from religious organizations. The film's cynical take on religion may be upsetting to a churchgoing audience.
The Whale tackles themes of redemption, being oneself, and dealing with grief. Brendan Fraser showcased that and ultimately won an Oscar for his performance as Charlie. The Whale ending brought the powerful and intense drama to a conclusion that requires some more analysis.
In the years since, Charlie is completely estranged from Ellie (Sadie Sink), and Alan died by suicide after a period of sleep deprivation and anorexia.
The white whale is a metaphor for the destructive force of nature. Although nature is an anonymous force which takes no sides and simply follows its own natural course, Ahab seems to see nature as something that has power over him, which is something that he cannot accept.
"The way the play ends is, Ellie has the last line of the essay: 'It made me feel glad for my…' And she's cut off by the stage direction – 'a sharp intake of breath'. 'Charlie looks up, and has a sharp intake of breath.
Fraser's performance in “The Whale” has earned him an Oscar nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, and later this year, he'll be seen in Martin Scorsese's “Killers of the Flower Moon,” proving his prestige comeback is no one-off.
Characters. Charlie – He is over 40 years old. According to Paul Hodgins of the Orange County Register, the play's author "wants us to get past our initial revulsion and see Charlie's size as a manifestation of his pain". Liz – She is a nurse.
Religious trauma leading to suicide, love, loss, secrets, regret, redemption, and binge eating disorder are themes in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. Throughout the movie, Charlie inflicted more pain and trauma on his body with every episode of binge eating. He eats to numb his pain but also sadly to harm himself.
