The Whale

(CNN) — Brendan Fraser has entered the Oscars chat. The actor is squarely back in Hollywood and already on the minds of those thinking about the Academy ...

['Brendan Fraser gets emotional after 6-minute standing ovation for 'The Whale' at Venice Film Festival'](https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/entertainment/brendan-fraser-whale-venice/index.html) Brendan Fraser gets emotional after 6-minute standing ovation for 'The Whale' at Venice Film Festival According to Variety, Fraser donned a prosthetic suit to play Charlie and he told reporters at the film festival over the weekend of the challenges of the role including having to "learn how to move in a new way."

Brendon Fraser received a boisterous standing ovation after his film The Whale was screened at the Venice Film Festival.

His character is trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter after he left the family years ago for his gay lover. The film will also be screened for an audience at the Toronto International Film Festival where After the incident, Fraser felt he was blacklisted from Hollywood and struggled to be cast in parts. The reception of the film was electric, and Fraser received a 6 minute standing ovation, a major achievement at a festival. [Fraser is at the start of a “Brenaissance,](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/the-brenaissance-continues-with-first-look-at-brendan-fraser-in-a24s-the-whale)” which is what fans are lovingly calling his return to Hollywood. For more information on films releasing later this year, check out our Fraser was aware of this, and felt it was the perfect way to This weekend at the Venice Film Festival, The Whale was screened for an audience. This part is a far cry from George of the Jungle and The Mummy. In The Whale, Fraser is playing an obese English teacher with a binge eating disorder and depression. Things are thankfully turning around for The Mummy actor. [AppleTV+ subscribers](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/apple-tv-subscription-the-plan-the-price-and-whats-included) later this year.

Brendan Fraser got emotional and cried as audiences at the Venice Film Festival gave a six-minute standing ovation after the premiere of 'The Whale.'

[posted on social media](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ljsBMfF104M) shows a teary Fraser reluctantly getting up as the audience, on its feet, claps and cheers for his performance. The film is based on Samuel D. Berk apologized but admitted no wrongdoing. Fraser rose to prominence in the 1990s as an action and comedy heartthrob in lighthearted films like 1992’s “Encino Man,” 1997’s “George of the Jungle” and 1999’s “The Mummy.” [drama](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-07-27/brendan-fraser-the-whale-transformation-a24-darren-aronofsky) from A24, in which Fraser donned prosthetics and makeup to play a 600-pound recluse who uses a wheelchair. The actor Brendan Fraser got emotional as audiences at the Venice Film Festival gave a six-minute standing ovation on Sunday after seeing the world premiere of his upcoming film “The Whale,” according to

Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale" premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on Sunday and received a six-minute standing ovation.

If that rapturous applause carries on throughout awards season, that may prove the most wonderful and moving moment of this whale’s journey.” I’ve been a fan of Darren’s ever since I saw ‘Requiem for a Dream’ when I was a college freshman writing my first plays, and I’m so grateful that he’s bringing his singular talent and vision to this film.” “This story is deeply personal, and I’m very thankful it will have the chance to reach a wider audience. In a pair of videos posted to Twitter by Ramin Setoodeh (co-editor in chief of Variety), the cast and top creative team behind the upcoming tearjerker can be seen reacting to a six-minute standing ovation after the film’s premiere on Sunday. Hunter’s play of the same name, “The Whale” stars Fraser as Charlie, a 600-pound gay man who is confined to a wheelchair. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky.”

Brains are complex and delicate organs—and whale brains especially so. Few whales are in good condition when they beach. Fewer still are reached in time to ...

For many whales and dolphins, the challenges of life are impossible outside of a social group. In the words of one neuroscientist: “we don’t even understand the brain of a worm.” Perhaps that is simply a hazard that comes with poking around in the most complicated, gloopy mush in the universe. In both whales and humans, the neocortex appears to have special “integrative centers” that process and integrate the information coming in from the sensory and motor areas. In humans, the parts of the brain that relate to high-level cognitive functions, such as attention, intuition, and social awareness, are larger than in most other mammals. The VENs seemed to be found only in certain areas of the human brain: the frontal insula and cingulate cortex. Ours are similar in proportion to our body mass, as are the brains of some rodents; mice and men both invest a lot of themselves in their thinking organs. Trying to infer from brains and their structures which animals are “better” at cognition and ranking animal brains in order of “intelligence” is as treacherous as it is tempting. But there are other measurements in the cortex that seem to be associated with intelligence, and here, dolphins and whales lag behind humans. In humans, the cerebral cortex, acting with other bits of the brain (the basal ganglia, basal forebrain, and dorsal thalamus), appears to be the seat of this form of “intelligence.” The more cortex you have and the more wrinkled it is, the more surface area available for making connections—and voila! It’s perhaps not a fair comparison: in relation to the size of our bodies, our brains are bigger than those of whales. He cut a neat panel in the skull, like a burglar piercing the glass of a museum window, and teased the porridge-colored organ through the gap and into a jar of preservative fluid. To obtain a whale brain for examination, the stars have to align: the whale must be freshly dead, and a good anatomist must cut its head off and refrigerate it quickly.

Whale-watching cruises can negatively affect the behavior of cetaceans, depending on species, environment, and population.

[lubricants and fertilizers](https://daily.jstor.org/so-you-plan-to-teach-moby-dick/), to be sure, but there’s still an aspect of commodification here. Although a handful of nations still hunt and kill cetaceans for commercial purposes, “whaling” is now more commonly a form of tourism, enjoyed from Patagonia to Alaska, Norway to South Africa, and off the coasts of China, Iceland, New Zealand, and even Just by showing up, the audience is having an effect. We found disruptions of activity budget and path of directionality as the most consistent responses towards whale-watching vessels. The authors found that behavioral changes “may vary depending on species, populations and environmental features.” For instance, larger species tend to respond to vessels by speeding up. Smaller species, like dolphins, tend to slow down.

Dwayne Johnson and Brendan Fraser were co-stars 21 years ago in "The Mummy Returns."

Johnson and Fraser also share a Hollywood connection thanks to Warner Bros.’ “Journey to the Center of the Earth” franchise. [broke down in tears](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/brendan-fraser-cries-the-whale-venice-standing-ovation-1235337836/) during the reception, a video of which shared by Variety co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh on Twitter has earned over 15.5 million views and counting. The actor is earning Oscar buzz and the best reviews of his career for his leading turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “ [The Whale](https://variety.com/t/the-whale/).”

Brendan Fraser is making a comeback with The Whale, a new movie from Darren Aronofsky. Here's everything we know.

The Whale is directed by Darren Aronofsky. Maisel, Saturday Night Live, Only Murders in the Building and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. The director has been around the indie movie scene since the 90s and has built a reputation for his often challenging and narratively ambitious movies. [No Sudden Move](https://www.whattowatch.com/reviews/no-sudden-move-review-a-fun-nasty-little-b-movie-thriller), has appeared in the TV series Doom Patrol and was set to play the villain in [Batgirl](https://www.whattowatch.com/news/dcs-batgirl-gets-the-chop-as-hbo-max-cuts-back-on-original-movies), before Warner Bros. That looks to change with The Whale, a new drama starring Fraser from director Darren Aronofsky. While he was still active heading into the 21st century, he has not been able to reach the same heights as he did in the 90s, mostly appearing in TV shows and smaller, less heralded movies. Those from the 90s will remember Fraser when he was at the height of his stardom, appearing in movies like The Mummy, Airheads, George of the Jungle and Gods and Monsters. It currently (as of September 6) has an 85% on However, The Whale is said to be a showcase for the actor and with more high-profile roles on the horizon, including Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, we’re going to be seeing more of Brendan Fraser very soon. Is there a The Whale trailer? Who is in The Whale cast?

The 2022 Venice Film Festival has 30 LGBTQ titles, including “Tár,” starring Cate Blanchett, and Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale," both Queer Lion contenders.

But Casagrande seems proudest of its ability to launch small indies to more fests and awards, citing Li Cheng’s “José” and Kuba Czekaj’s special mention honoree “Baby Bump.” The Queer Lion has honored features with big-name talent (Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” Tom Hooper’s “The Danish Girl”) and filmmakers like 2009 Career Achievement award winner Ang Lee. “I like to remember a very laid-back Brian De Palma who, during the press conference for [his 2012 lesbian-themed thriller] “Passion,” declared himself sure of winning the Queer Lion,” Casagrande said with amusement. This year’s jurors are connected with the festival, but past years have included journalists, critics, directors such as filmmaker Tinto Brass (“Caligula”) and the first all-female jury in 2021. Casagrande said this year’s [Venice Film Festival](https://variety.com/t/venice-film-festival/) will be “the most queer edition ever.” “The answer was a warm ‘yes,’ so along with my current right-hand man Marco Busato and Franco Grillini, I started working on the project,” Casagrande said.

Director Darren Aronofsky and his star, Brendan Fraser, aim for empathy but come up short.

Here’s Charlie, keening and pleading behind a pane of glass for all of us to sigh and pout and gawk at, before moving on to the next fleeting curiosity. (Again, I see little empathy in the way this scene is framed and choreographed.) Thomas, seeing this heaving totem of misery, wants to save the dying Charlie’s soul, a witless effort toward a man who feels he’s past redemption—spiritually, morally, physically. This is a mighty act of becoming, the film seems to insist—and also one of empathy. But what’s expressed instead is a kind of leering horror, a portrait of a man gone to catastrophic ruin so that we, in the audience, may tap into our nobler, higher minds and see the worthy human being beneath the frightful exterior. Hunter’s 2012 play, The Whale is a story of a morbidly obese man, Charlie (Brendan Fraser), living out what might be his last days as his heart falters and his mind is lost to regret. And now there is The Whale, a lugubrious chamber drama that premiered here at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday.

In Darren Aronofsky's “The Whale,” the onetime leading hunk is earning Oscar chatter for his role as a 600-pound recluse, though the emotional actor is ...

It was clear from the supportive applause at the news conference that people were rooting for the actor, and that personal narrative of a career comeback combined with a showy role could take Fraser to the front of the pack. “I needed to learn to move in a new way,” Fraser said. “I looked different in those days,” he said. But when he was asked about that buzz and what it meant for the future of his career, Fraser said softly that it remained to be seen. And I think that is Charlie.” “It just didn’t move me, it didn’t feel right.” “Thank you for the warm reception,” Fraser said. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed, just as you would feel stepping off the boat onto the dock here in Venice.” [Hong Chau](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/movies/hong-chau-downsizing-stereotyping.html)) warns Charlie that his blood pressure is so severe that if he doesn’t change his ways or go to a hospital, he’ll almost certainly die. And whenever the clearly emotional Fraser managed to make it to the end of a statement without his eyes filling with tears, the room full of journalists burst into encouraging applause. Stories like this are possible because of our deep commitment to original reporting, produced by a global staff of over 1,700 journalists who have all dedicated themselves to helping you understand the world. Aronofsky wanted to mount the movie for years but could never land on the right lead.

Darren Aronofsky's latest walks a fine line between compassion and exploitation, but its star gives a refined, mournful performance.

And yet to look into his eyes is to see a person who’s willing himself to die, even as he wishes he had the will to live. Charlie is a bit of a pushover, too eager to see the good in others even as he’s unable to acknowledge his own sterling qualities. (The movie’s title is a reference to Moby Dick, the subject of an essay Charlie loves and returns to again and again for comfort.) There are so many ways in which this guy is just a drag to be around; his self-destruction is at least partly entwined with his self-centeredness. [Mother!](https://time.com/4951193/darren-aronofsky-mother-director/) was to some a tortured, pointless spectacle, to others a cautionary tale about the potential cruelty of the creative impulse. His compulsion is a kind of suicide pact he’s made with himself, and he’s locked in a tricky cycle: his increasing weight seems to have made him more depressed and less able to cope, a condition he self-medicates by eating. Charlie’s grief, and what he sees as the mistakes he’s made in his life, have filled him with anxiety and guilt, and the only way he can cope with those feelings is to eat his way through them, even past the point where he knows his excessive weight is killing him. Shot by his frequent collaborator Matthew Libatique, the movie has a dank, used-dishwater look—to represent Charlie’s despair, the total lack of light in his life, of course. He has no insurance, so he relies on his closest—and only—friend, Liz ( [Hong Chau](https://time.com/5027082/hong-chau-gets-big-break-in-miniature/), in a bright, bracing performance), who is, luckily, a nurse, and who also has a knack for stopping by at just the right moment. [Darren Aronofsky’s](https://content.time.com/time/photoessays/10questions/0,30255,2040711,00.html) The Whale—playing in competition at the 79th [Venice Film Festival](https://time.com/6210765/bones-and-all-review/)— [Brendan Fraser](https://time.com/5171977/brendan-fraser-philip-berk-hfpa-sexual-assault/) plays Charlie, a man who has given up on life, which in turn affects how and what he eats. His 2010 nutso-ballerina saga Black Swan was either a work of spangled dorkiness that was impossible to take seriously, or a cautionary tale about the potential cruelty of the creative impulse. The Whale, at least, is a different kind of film for Aronofsky, who has managed to pry the camera’s gaze away from his own navel.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Brendan Fraser is having a moment at the Venice International Film Festival.

[In “Mother!”](/article/fall-films-jennifer-lawrence-entertainment-darren-aronofsky-north-america-dcd030395d4c48b0a2b3c27f68c3ff3b) he was limited to a house. “For someone like Charlie to see that there’s good in someone like Ellie, it’s throwing her for a loop.” “His superpower is to see the good in others and bring that out of them.” “The Whale” was Aronofsky’s favorite kind of challenge — in that it had so many limitations. “It’s a big moment for me and, I think, for cinema.” “The last few years, so many of us have lost so much. “I was afraid to write it,” he said. And A24 plans to release it in theaters on Dec. Aronofsky and his actors could be poised to leave with trophies in hand this year, too. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed, as you would feel stepping off of a boat in Venice,” Fraser said. “To a lot of Sam Hunter’s pain, it took me 10 years to make this movie and that’s because it took me 10 years to cast,” Aronofsky said. While the film already has pundits predicting Oscar nominations, Fraser is trying not to think about whether awards are in his future.

Darren Aronofsky's The Whale fails Brendan Fraser, saddling him with a reductive role, that never moves beyond the closed-circuit claptrap.

The Whale does not engage outside of the known narrative of the actor in the film — it’s his comeback! (Reminder: the character is physically introduced through masturbation which signals the desire to shock with his body, right from the get, something opposite of the tear-drenched ending and partially why the ending doesn’t feel earned to me). He has a set routine, which includes regular visits from his caretaker, who has ties to his past (Hong Chau), and Dan, the pizza delivery guy who follows the regular instructions of delivery — leave on the ledge, money is in the mailbox. Morton, too, was more of a mainstay in the early 2000s and has faded into lesser roles. The Whale is Fraser’s first leading role in a theatrical movie in a decade. Therein lies part of the problem of The Whale, the main character is not a vessel for his own journey but for a secondary character, and, by extension, the audience.

At its Venice world premiere, Darren Aronofsky's 'The Whale' received a seven-minute standing ovation; star Brendan Fraser was visibly moved.

In that process, he’s on his journey of salvation.” Star [Brendan Fraser](https://deadline.com/tag/brendan-fraser/) was visibly moved as he was embraced by his director while extended applause rang throughout the auditorium. makes adjectives such as ‘brave’ and ‘fearless’ seem almost meaningless” and said The Whale is “cutting the line to put a never-better Brendan Fraser at the front of the Best Actor race.”

Brendan Fraser brings a big heart to Darren Aronofsky's faltering adaptation of a stage play about a man eating himself to death.

He seeks out his daughter Ellie (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink), and tries to make amends for the rage and hurt that filled the hole in her life when he left nine years before. But there’s an extra element of shame and taboo attached to compulsive eating; something that Aronofsky confronts with the unflinching and forthright manner in which he uses the character’s (prosthetic-enhanced) body. Smeared in the remnants of past meals, slicked with an oily layer of sweat, Aronofsky stresses the grotesque quality and the indignity of Charlie’s miserable life. And fans of the more spiritual end of Aronofsky’s career spectrum will be gratified to discover that the film is closer in tone to The Fountain than it is to Mother! Following on from its premiere in competition in Venice and a slot in TIFF, the film is likely to be a talking point release and, with word of mouth support, could achieve some degree of theatrical momentum. But since the chronically obese online English teacher is a shut-in who rarely leaves his sofa, let alone his apartment, his actual first-hand experiences of “people” is limited.

The movie, directed by Darren Aronofsky, is receiving its premiere at the Venice Film Venice, with Fraser already being touted as an Oscar contender for his ...

Fraser said he had put his all into the part. The film is an adaption of Samuel D. “I needed to learn to absolutely move in a new way.

VENICE: Brendan Fraser is having a moment at this year's Venice International Film Festival. The once ubiquitous movie star of "The Mummy" franchise and ...

"His superpower is to see the good in others and bring that out of them." "For someone like Charlie to see that there's good in someone like Ellie, it's throwing her for a loop." "I thought the only way I can do it is if I write it from a profoundly place of love and empathy.... "The last few years, so many of us have lost so much.... In the rough cut, Aronofsky said he was relieved to find that it didn't feel claustrophobic. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed, as you would feel stepping off of a boat in Venice," Fraser said. Aronofsky and his actors could be poised to leave with trophies in hand this year, too. One line in particular stuck out to him: "People are incapable of not caring." "To a lot of Sam Hunter's pain, it took me 10 years to make this movie and that's because it took me 10 years to cast," Aronofsky said. Aronofsky has been trying to make "The Whale" for about 10 years. But Fraser is charting what could be a major comeback starting with his transformative role in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale," which had its world premiere at the festival on Sunday night. While the film already has pundits predicting Oscar nominations, Fraser is trying not to think about whether awards are in his future.

Body horror takes a new form in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, which chronicles the long, slow suicide of a morbidly obese man with pitiless candour but an ...

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Actor Brendan Fraser received a six-minute standing ovation Sunday night at the Venice Film Festival, after making a comeback to the profession following ...

Dude had a super unfair shake in Hollywood, but now it's (hopefully) coming around and he's going to get his due," Fraser had breakout roles in George of the Jungle (1997) and The Mummy (1999). Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky.— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) He underwent a laminectomy (a procedure to remove vertebrae from the spine), a partial knee replacement and vocal cord repair, "Welcome back Brendan Fraser. He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career.

Millennial fave Brendan Fraser, who seemingly disappeared in the 2010s, makes a belated career comeback in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. The movie may prove ...

In the wake of the profile came a groundswell of solidarity for the star who once dominated our childhoods. In a 2018 interview [with GQ](https://www.gq.com/story/what-ever-happened-to-brendan-fraser), he revealed all: his self-worth plummeted in the wake of an alleged sexual assault in 2003, followed by an aching sense of disillusionment. [Mummy](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/the-mummy-tom-cruise) trilogy, for one, and starred in such family rental favourites as George of the Jungle. It’s true that this is the sort of thing, where an actor eschews vanity for a boatload of makeup and prosthetics, that voting bodies love: just look at Gary Oldman’s wobbly Churchill facsimile in The Darkest Hour, or even Eddie Redmayne’s controversial take on a trans woman in The Danish Girl. But this was as much a display of collective relief as it was the product of catharsis. It seemed as though he’d waited for years, not so much for the recognition as to be vindicated; truthfully, he has.

The 2022 Venice Film Festival is halfway through its run and, as expected, the movie event has brought together a slate of titles that have become this ...

The trailer for the movie is yet to be released. Clearly moved and trying to fight back tears, Fraser does an exaggerated bow and prepares to exit the theater, but is prompted to stay due to the continuous roar of applause. The 2022 Venice Film Festival is halfway through its run and, as expected, the movie event has brought together a slate of titles that have become this year’s standouts, and we’ll certainly hear from them in the months to come.