There has been a lot of love and support pouring over Brendan Fraser. The actor has garnered much acclaim for his performance in the DC show Doom Patrol and recently, there has been much good buzz surrounding his comeback performance in the new Darren Aronofsky film, The Whale. In a viral video getting a ton of views over the weekend shared by Variety co-editor Ramin Setoodeh, Fraser was given a six-minute standing ovation after the screening of The Whale at the Venice Film Festival which brought the actor to tears.
His former Mummy Returns co-star, Dwayne Johnson, has taken to Twitter in support of the renaissance the actor is having following this movie. Johnson says,
Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan. He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky.”
When Johnson was primarily known as The Rock at the WWE, the wrestler had set his sights on crossing over into Hollywood and the role he chose was the sequel to the hit 1999 remake, The Mummy, that catapulted Fraser into an action star. Fraser’s Rick O’ Connell would venture into the unknown of a curse his son had contracted from the Scorpion King. The Mummy Returns spun Johnson off into The Scorpion King and jump started his status into a blockbuster star.
Fraser had disappeared from big budget movies and had dealt with a lot of personal problems which would put a pause on his career. He recently spoke about his collaboration with Aronofsky about this challenging role in this extremely personal project. Fraser revealed that Aronofsky was looking to “reintroduce an actor” and Fraser wanted to be reintroduced. He alludes to not taking on a role of this caliber for while, if at all, as Fraser says he gave everything he had to this role.
The Whale is about a recluse with life-threatening obesity coming to terms with mortality and looking to connect with his estranged daughter. The film is scheduled for release for December 9.
Are you looking forward to this?