If the world premiere of
The Whale
at the Venice Film Festival is any indication, Brendan Fraser's return to Hollywood will be met with loud applause...and even tears.
When the credits rolled for Darren Aronofsky's drama, in which Fraser plays a 600-pound gay man confined to a wheelchair, the actor was overcome with emotion.
He sobbed during the audience's six-minute standing ovation for a film that puts him in the running for the best actor Oscars.
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Attendees at the screening included Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Nick Kroll and former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who sat a few rows behind Fraser and sobbed profusely along with many others during the film's harrowing finale.
Fraser hugged Aronofsky several times during the audience's applause, and tried to leave the theater but the applause rained down so loudly that he stayed longer and bowed.
[Fidel Castro arrives at the cinema with controversy over the actor who plays him: "He's not Latino!"]
Fraser stars as a severely obese man trying to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter, played by
Stranger Things
star Sadie Sink .
The cast also includes Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, and Ty Simpkins.
The film is based on the play of the same name written by Samuel D. Hunter, who adapted the screenplay for Aronofsky's feature film.
To play the lead, Fraser wore a prosthetic suit that weighed between 50 and 300 pounds depending on the requirements of some scenes.
Every day, the actor spent up to six hours in the makeup room to be able to transform into the character.
In an interview before the Venice premiere, Fraser explained that the suit was "cumbersome, and not exactly comfortable." human skin, even hair was applied by hand," he added.
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"I built muscles I didn't know I had," Fraser said at the Venice news conference about the shoot.
"I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when everything was taken away from me, it was like stepping off the dock onto a ship in Venice. That undulating [sensation] made me appreciate people who have those characteristics. You must be an incredibly strong person , mentally and physically, to be able to inhabit that physical being," he said.
[Actress Anne Heche was trapped for 45 minutes in the rubble of a burning house before being rescued]
In his review of
The Whale
in Venice, Variety's film critic Owen Gleiberman called Fraser "more cunning, more subtle, more haunting than ever", adding that he gives an "intensely vivid and moving performance".
Aronofsky has a long history at the prestigious festival.
Although it did not have good reviews in its first participation in Venice when it premiered
The Fountain
, it recovered in 2008 when
The Wrestler
won the Golden Lion.
Black Swan
was one of the great successes of the festival in 2010, earning Mila Kunis the emerging actress award;
and
Mother!
became the big talking point at the 2017 festival.
Fraser became an action star with 1997's
George of the Jungle and the blockbuster
The Mummy
franchise
, but relinquished his leading-actor status in the 2010s, taking on smaller roles, including a role in the television series
The Affair.
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Though he had a supporting role in Steven Soderbergh's
No Sudden Move
last year,
The Whale
marks a major comeback in his first leading role since
Breakout,
an action flick that was released direct-to-DVD in 2013.
Among his upcoming projects is
Killers of the Flower Moon,
a
western
by Martin Scorsese.
His performance as Garfield Lynns / Firefly in Batgirl, the famous DC character, will not be seen because Warner Bros. canceled the release of the film.
The production company A24 announced that the theatrical release of
The Whale
will be on December 9.
With information from Variety and
NBC News
