Brendan Fraser’s return to the big screen in “The Whale” has created enough buzzword to call it a successful comeback, and he might even win an Oscar Award for his performance in the movie.
The actor discusses his decision to leave Hollywood for good in a recent interview that aired on CBS Sunday Morning. He goes into detail about the factors that led to his withdrawal.
While talking to CBS’s Lee Cowan, Fraser reflects on his standing as a leading man during the 1990s and 2000s as a result of his appearances in movies such as Encino Man, School Ties, the blockbuster Mummy franchise and George of the Jungle (the movie containing the scene he apologized for after 25 years, involving him climbing to the top of the bay bridge in San Francisco, resulting in a traffic jam).
His fans have better name for him “Brennaissance”: Whatever it is, Charlie is undeniably a very different character from the ones Fraser was portraying in the ’90s and early ’00s. Between “George of the Jungle,” and the drama “Gods and Monsters.” in which he co-starred with Ian McKellen, who was nominated for an Oscar Award, he is more than capable of holding his own.
Cowan asked, “When you look back at yourself in the ’90s, what do you think these days?”
“What do I think? I think that guy’s really lucky!” he laughed. “I think he’s got awesome hair!”
That hair, his good looks, and his swashbuckling demeanor made “The Mummy” a blockbuster. Critics even started comparing him to Harrison Ford – and like Ford, Fraser reprised his “Mummy” role several times over.
“Which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess?” asked Cowan.
“Maybe curse of the mummy!”
His popularity was rapidly becoming a sandstorm, which pelted him with self-doubt day after day, he says: “I felt at that time that it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t big enough, I wasn’t cut enough, or any of those adjectives. And the person that I saw, and was trying to create, wasn’t an ideal in my mind. And how you contend with that?”
At that time, Fraser was a Hollywood heartthrob, but he has stated that he has now come to the realization that he was never quite good enough.
“I felt at that time that it wasn’t enough,” he says. “I wasn’t big enough, I wasn’t cut enough, or any of those adjectives. And the person that I saw, and was trying to create, wasn’t an ideal in my mind. And how do you contend with that?”
Fraser says he “needed the music to stop” — which meant stepping back from Hollywood.
“We can put actors on pedestals and then knock them off so quickly and so easily,” he says. “It’s almost like that’s the game. So I just got rid of the pedestal. I just wanted to be myself.”
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However, self-doubt was not the only factor that led to Fraser taking a break from his work. In 2018, the divorced dad of three went public about a 2003 groping incident involving Philip Berk, the former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president.
Fraser has described the physical contact as being more intrusive, despite the fact that Berk has claimed that he was only pinching the actor’s bottom as a joke.
Meanwhile Fraser told GQ in 2018, “His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around.”
“It was causing me emotional distress,” he says of the incident. “It was causing me personal distress.”
He reveals to Cowan that up until that time, he had “played by the rules” with regard to the power dynamics in Hollywood. What took place with Berk should serve as both a warning and a dividing line in the sand.
“I felt like OK, now, suddenly, I’ve been violated and it has gone too far,” he says. “And I will no longer abide this.”
Fraser credits the #MeToo movement with giving him the courage to share his story.
“I spoke up because I saw so many of my friends and colleagues who at that time were bravely emerging to speak their truth power,” Fraser tells Cowan. “And I had something to say, too.”
He dealt with the situations by stepping aside, taking stock of his priorities, and giving the Hollywood merry-go-round some breathing room to operate on its own for a bit. “I needed the music to stop, you know? We can put actors on pedestals and then knock them off so quickly and so easily. It’s almost like that’s the game. So, I just got rid of the pedestal. I just wanted to be myself.”
He took up a new interest, which was archery. According to him, there is something about letting an arrow fly free into the wind that has become both a peaceful and therapeutic experience for him.
He believes that “The Whale” also has something to contribute to the conversation. What he wants people to walk away with is not pity, but rather an awareness that Charlie could be any one of us who loves, cares about, and grieves for someone else.
“The Whale,” directed by Darren Aronofsky, tells the story of Charlie, a guy suffering from obesity who is attempting to correct a few wrongs in his life.
You can watch the teaser for “The Whale” below:
According to Fraser, it is not just one of the most controversial but also the most demanding part he has ever played in his lengthy career. He collaborated with the Obesity Action Coalition to ensure that his portrayal of Charlie was respectful and empathic, and he did so via his performance.
However, that wasn’t sufficient enough for some of the critics. They claim that the movie and Fraser’s usage of a so-called fat suit, still stigmatize people with bigger body types. He defends his prosthetic suit by saying it was appropriate to portray a man who weighs 600 pounds.
“It has us take a look at someone who we would otherwise just dismiss,” he said. “I think this film has the ability to change hearts and minds about how we perceive those who live with obesity.”
Brendan Fraser is now emerging on the other side of all of that suffering, having gone through it all himself in the past.
Conclusively, Cowan posed the question, “Do you feel like those days of self-doubt and when you were trying to step back from things to get a better perspective are behind you?”
“It feels like a new day, that’s for sure, it does,” Fraser laughed. “Yes, it does. It feels like a new, better, beautiful day!”
