‘The Whale’: How Brendan Fraser’s Physical Transformation Happened

Next March 12 (early morning of the 13th in Spain) Brendan Fraser to enter Dolby Theater in Los Angeles as frontrunner to lift Best Actor statuette at Oscars 2023. But his candidacy is not the only choice from “The Whale” by Darren Aronofsky. Hong Chau is nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and the team behind Fraser’s physical transformation in the film is set for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

To give a boost to the candidacy (even if it also starts as a favorite), A24 has released a video in which we can see the spectacular prosthetic and make-up work with which Brendan Fraser has become Charlie, a man weighing more than 270 kilos. A job that required six hours a day in the makeup department before filming began..

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by A24 (@a24)

The challenges of filming

The prostheses are made by Adrien Morot, already nominated for an Oscar in 2011 for ‘The World According to Barney’ and who has also worked in films such as ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, ‘Power’s Vice’ or ‘ M3GAN’. The case of “The Whale” was particularly complicated because I was unable to get a head cast of the protagonist in a pandemic, so He had to use Zoom video and a digital scanner made with an iPad in the actor’s garage. As for the body, to make the movements more realistic, they have inserted a series of gelatinous water chains into the prosthesis. Fraser needed the team’s help to free himself from the suit’s weight. In addition to being ventilated, they expended about five bags of ice each day to counteract the suit’s heat.

The actor also gained weight to play this depressed professor, and both he and Aronofsky worked with the Obesity Action Coalition and the morbidly obese to create a character that was complex and didn’t fall into ridicule or condescension. “I quickly learned that it takes an incredibly strong person inside that body to be that person. It seemed logical and poetic and practical, all at the same time.” explained the actor in an interview. The director defended his work and the film, assuring that the people they spoke to are convinced that ‘The Whale’ will serve to “to open people’s eyes. These people, this community, are judged by doctors when they go to seek medical care. They are judged everywhere, by most of the world. This film shows that, like everyone else, we are human and that we are good, bad, with failures and hopes, with joys and sorrows, and that we have all those colors inside us.”.

‘The Whale’ is available in theatres.