After years away from the protagonists, Brendan Fraser is going to make a splash in Toronto with The whale. The Darren Aronofsky drama has been touted as a career revival and was received enthusiastically when it premiered in Venice. Fraser was last at TIFF in 2004 for Paul Haggis’ star-studded Crash.
The actor joined cast members, including Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Terrence Howard, at the premiere of the film that explored race relations in Los Angeles through a series of intertwined storylines; one is about district attorney Rick Cabot (Fraser) and his wife Jean (Bullock) who experience a traumatic carjacking. Despite a mixed critical response, the film picked up steam during the awards season and took a shattered Best Picture win over its supposed front-runner. Brokeback Mountain.
Fraser hasn’t been a protagonist in a studio release since the 2008 Warner Bros. fantasy adaptation ink heart.
A THR Opinion piece linked to that film’s release suggested he could take advantage of a counter-type role to “take both the actor and his fans out of their mutual comfort zone.”
Given that The whalethe adaptation of the Drama Desk-winning play of the same name that A24 will release on December 9 shows Fraser as a 600-pound man trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, he seems to have found just that.