Finally, some good news: the internet's favourite, Brendan Fraser, is set to receive the TIFF Tribute Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
The Canadian-American actor is being honoured for his performance in Darren Aronofsky's forthcoming adaptation of The Whale, Samuel D. Hunter's stage drama chronicling a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity and his attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, played by Stranger Things' Sadie Sink.
The Canadian-American actor is being honoured for his performance in Darren Aronofsky's forthcoming adaptation of The Whale, Samuel D. Hunter's stage drama chronicling a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity and his attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, played by Stranger Things' Sadie Sink.
Other recipients of the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance include Jessica Chastain, Joaquin Phoenix and Benedict Cumberbatch, who went on to nab Academy Award nominations (and wins).
Despite the Oscar buzz, The Whale has been kept largely under wraps up until this point; a trailer has yet to even be shared. TIFF describes Fraser's performance as "career-defining," giving the A24 film's synopsis as follows:
Writing instructor Charlie (Fraser) never seems to have his webcam enabled while teaching online. He makes excuses and is so good-natured that no one makes a fuss, but the real reason for his invisibility is his appearance. Charlie weighs 600 pounds. His obesity starts to pose a grave threat to his health and his friend Liz (Hong Chau), a nurse, begs him to check into a hospital, but also recognizes that it might be more important to simply offer support.
Charlie's current status quo is upended by the return of his long-estranged adolescent daughter, Ellie (Sink), though her willingness to resume a relationship seems prompted as much by Charlie's offers to ghostwrite her school essays as it is by her sense of familial loyalty. Meanwhile, Charlie receives visits from a door-to-door evangelist (Ty Simpkins) who engages him in a dialogue about redemption that, despite Charlie's lack of religious inclination, proves surprisingly resonant. Can any of these folks, regardless of their personal agendas, serve as the lifeline to self-acceptance that Charlie so urgently needs?
The Whale will have its world premiere at Venice International Film Festival shortly ahead of screening at TIFF on September 11 and 12.
Fraser was recently a victim of the darkest night that fell upon the $90-million Batgirl movie, because we can't have nice things. Thankfully, in addition to The Whale, the actor still has some other big-name projects in the works, including Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.
