Brendan Fraser’s Hollywood comeback is officially complete. On Sunday night, the actor’s eyes were full of tears throughout his acceptance speech for Best Actor in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale.
“Oh my goodness,” Frasier said as he accepted his award on Sunday night, tears in his eyes. “I thank the Academy for this honor, and for the studio A24 for making such a bold film. And I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline.”
The Whale was Fraser’s first lead role in a major theatrical release in decades. In 2018, Fraser said in a GQ profile that he’d been groped in 2003 by Phillip Berk—then the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association—and that the group had treated the matter like “a joke.” (In a statement back in 2018, the HFPA said in part that it “continues to stand firmly against sexual harassment” and that it has “always taken Brendan Fraser’s allegations very seriously.”) Since its release, The Whale has been billed as a comeback vehicle for Fraser.
Everyone in this year’s best actor race was a first-time nominee, including Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Bill Nighy for Living, and Paul Mescal for Aftersun. Throughout the awards season, however, Austin Butler (Elvis) and Brendan Fraser—nominated for his comeback vehicle, The Whale—have been the frontrunners. For the past few months, it’s been unclear which of the two has had more momentum; Butler won the lead actor categories at both the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards, while Fraser won the category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“Gentlemen, you laid your whale-sized hearts bare so that we could see into your souls, like no one else could do,” Frasier said to his fellow nominees during his speech on Sunday night. “And it is my honor to be named alongside you in this category.”
Fraser was visibly emotional throughout the speech, as he has been while accepting other awards, including the Critics Choice Awards, throughout the season; his voice wavered, and his eyes were full of tears. He thanked his sons, playwright and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter (whom he called “our lighthouse”), and his manager, and he commended his co-star Hong Chau—whom he said “only whales” can match in depth.
“I started in this business 30 years ago,” Fraser said, “and things—they didn’t come easy to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t appreciate at the time, until it stopped. And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement,” he said, “because it couldn’t be done without my cast. It’s been a bit like a diving expedition on the bottom of the ocean.”
“I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement,” he said, “because it couldn’t be done without my cast. It’s been a bit like a diving expedition at the bottom of the ocean.”
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