By Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway
(Reuters) – Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” is a psychological thriller that stars actor Brendan Fraser, as well as Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton.
Since the film’s world premiere at the Venice film festival in September, Fraser has been predicted to be the best actor winner for the 2023 Oscars.
The movie is an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter play of the same name that follows, Charlie, an extremely overweight man with very limited mobility.
He is warned by his best friend, Liz, portrayed by Hong Chau that he will die if he doesn’t get medical help.
“The hope is we can change hearts and minds about how we relate to one another or don’t relate to one another, how we may dismiss one another, by simply by virtue of how we appear to one another,” Fraser told Reuters.
The “The Mummy” actor had to put on a heavy body suit as well as prosthetics for the film. He said, “I had a lot of support from almost a race car driving pit crew to help me stay cool and hydrated”.
Both Fraser and Sink feel as if they gained more insight into the film after viewing it themselves.
“I knew intellectually what was going to happen, but I felt like I was watching a film that I just didn’t know anything about. It transported me that way. It did,” Fraser said.
Sink explained, “I did the same thing. After I watched it for the first time, I just started analyzing things and picking up on things that maybe I didn’t pick up on in the moment and it’s just really nice to be a part of a film like that you can just endlessly dissect.”
“The Whale” arrives in the U.S. theaters on Dec. 9.
(Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
