Brendan Fraser, whose career has featured both runaway success and semi-obscurity, celebrated perhaps his finest hour on Sunday, winning the lead actor Oscar for his performance in “The Whale.”
“So this is what the multiverse looks like!” Fraser proclaimed in his acceptance speech, thanking his director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline.”
Fraser’s road to the Oscars began with a six-minute standing ovation for his transformative performance in Darren Aronofsky’s film when it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September.
Despite some controversy over his casting as a suicidal 600-pound gay professor and the film’s portrayal of morbid obesity (based on the Samuel D. Hunter play), Fraser had won more than 20 lead actor awards. of critics groups, including the Critics’ Choice Assn., and garnered the most trusted Oscar precursor: the Screen Actors Guild Award.
Although Fraser has worked steadily in television and smaller films in recent years, he hadn’t headlined a major theatrical release since 2010’s “Extraordinary Measures” starring Harrison Ford. Before that, of course, he had starring roles in the ‘Mummy’ franchise, ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’, ‘Crash’, ‘Gods and Monsters’, ‘George of the Jungle’ and many more. .
Fraser attributed his absence from the marquee in part to injuries sustained while enthusiastically filming his many action films; he also alleged that eight-term HFPA President Philip Berk sexually assaulted him. (Berk denied the accusation, as well as the actor’s open question about whether the Golden Globes had blacklisted him. Berk was later kicked out of the organization when it emerged he had sent an email calling Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement,” prompting Globes broadcaster NBC to call for its removal.)
Fraser, meanwhile, ended up winning America’s TV movie awards this season – except for the Globes, which selected Austin Butler’s much-loved turn as the king of rock ‘n’ roll in ‘Elvis’. “. Fraser had said in advance that he “would not be attending” the Globes ceremony.