He was a forgotten star of the 90s.

“I still have a lot to prove, and to do that I need bigger and bigger challenges,” he admitted. Brendan FraserOn March 12, 2023, he won the Academy Award for Best Male Role in the Movie “whale“.

He was born on December 3, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated in acting from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. In 1991, he made his big screen debut in the comedy-melodrama “American Dogs”.

Scientist’s profession Brendan Frasera I started with an adventure film “mummy”. It was 1999 and the production was a box office success. The second part was created a year later – “The Mummy Returns” (2000). It was supposed to be the beginning of success, but it turned out that movie successes brought the actor down.

Fraser was one of the most handsome men in Hollywood, and it seemed he would be playing lovers for many years. It happened differently.

Excruciating training, stunts, grueling diets and hard work on set left Fraser mentally burned out and physically exhausted. In 2008, after she starred in the third part of the film series “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”On the set, where he was working only thanks to painkillers and cooling compresses hidden under his costume, the star said, “Stop.”

The actor devoted the next few years to saving his health – he underwent knee and spine surgery and vocal cord reconstruction. The actor’s decision was influenced by the fact that critics completely panned the film and even the viewers were not happy.

During this period, not only was his health deteriorating, but his private life was also crumbling. In April 2008, after 10 years of marriage, the star divorced his wife, Afton Smith, with whom he shares custody of three children: Griffin, 20, has autism18-year-old Holden and 16-year-old Leland.

He admitted in 2022 in a conversation with Howard Stern, explaining the reasons for the breakup: “I cared more about my professional life than my personal life.”

Another devastating experience was trauma that Fraser carried with him for years. He only spoke about it in 2018. He then admitted that in 2003, during a luncheon organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, he was harassed by the organization’s then-president, Philip Berk.

Fraser said in interviews that the 15-year silence cost him dearly. He felt humiliated, fell into a depression, and was afraid that if he told everything publicly, his career would be ruined. And it was only the emergence of the #MeToo movement that made him brave.

The actor admitted, “I spoke out because I saw a lot of my friends and colleagues who were courageously speaking truth about power at that time. And I also had something to say.”

Honesty, as expected, took a toll on his career. After confessing to Beric, the actor lost many projects, but he did not want to reveal who stopped working with him because of that.

Over the years, Brendan Fraser has played small roles in niche productions. He just noticed the potential that lay in him Darren Aronofsky. In one of the interviews, the creator of “Requiem for a Dream” admitted that he had long been looking for the right actor to play the role of the teacher, who weighs more than 200 kilograms, and who knows that he has little left to do. He lives and wants to use the time he has left to rebuild his relationship with his teenage daughter.

Finally, the creator found an actor he remembers from the movie “The Mummy.”

“When he left my office after our first meeting, I felt it immediately. I knew he could play someone who most people reject at first, but within five minutes they start to like him, and within 20 minutes they start falling in love with him. Brendan has something What’s in it,” Aronofsky admitted in an interview with Variety.

Fraser probably didn’t expect that this role would put him back on top. “I wanted a story that I cared about, that would move me,” he said.

For his poignant performance, Fraser received numerous awards – including a Critics’ Choice Statue, a Satellite, and of course an Academy Award.

charlie (Brendan Fraser) He has been living on the sidelines of the world for years. Trapped in a small apartment due to morbid obesity. He is rejected by his loved ones, not without reason, and heads alone into the abyss of life. But one time, one encounter, is enough to ignite the flame of hope in him that all is not lost. Charlie tries to reconnect with his teenage daughter. He knows he has a very difficult meeting. He realizes that he risks losing his last illusion. However, he is willing to take this risk with the belief that there is still a chance for redemption for him as well.

Brendan Fraser w “whale“Almost unrecognizable – in order to play the role of a man weighing about 300 kilograms, the actor had to gain a lot of weight. A tall handsome brunette with a stern face turned into a man tired of life, and his life-threatening excess weight does not prevent him from performing his functions normally.” Not only does it prevent him from getting up from the sofa on his own, as the actor wore a costume that weighed more than 130 kilograms on set.

Recently We saw Brendan Fraser in Martin Scorsese’s “Blood Moon.”.

“I thought he would be a great lawyer and I’ve admired his work for years. He showed up on set after we’d been filming for a few weeks. […] “We did very well,” Martin Scorsese said.