Fraser’s comeback a whale of a tale
Once known for ‘Mummy’ films, actor is first Canadian to win prestigious category
Brendan Fraser made Academy Award history Sunday night, becoming the first Canadian to receive an Oscar for Best Actor.
Fraser, 54, nabbed the prize for his performance in “The Whale,” in which he played a shut-in professor looking to connect with his estranged daughter.
The Canadian-American dual citizen was considered one of the front-runners for the trophy throughout much of the awards season, during which he also picked up a Screen Actors Guild Award and Critics Choice Movie Award.
On Sunday, the actor delivered an emotional acceptance speech as he earned the industry’s biggest prize.
“I started in this business 30 years ago and things didn’t come easily for me,” he said onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, accepting his first Oscar after beating fellow nominees Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Bill Nighy and Paul Mescal.
“I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship ‘The Whale,’ ” he said, referring to the film’s director.
Fraser was born in Indianapolis, Ind., to Canadian parents. His father, Peter, was a former journalist who moved his family to the U.S. to work for the Government Office of Tourism as a Canadian foreign service officer. Fraser’s uncle, George Genereux, was a trap shooter and the only Canadian to win a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
Fraser and his family relocated every few years due to the nature of Peter’s work. It was in London, England, where Fraser first discovered theatre and fell in love with acting.
In his early teens, Fraser began performing in Seattle before moving to Toronto, where he attended Upper Canada College.
He returned to Seattle to attend the Cornish College of the Arts. It was during college when Fraser caught his first break: a role in the 1991 coming-of-age drama “Dogfight.”
His career then took off, with appearances in “Airheads,” “George of the Jungle,” “Gods and Monsters” and the popular “The Mummy” franchise.
But “The Whale” marked Fraser’s first major role in a decade. The Canadian Walk of Fame inductee has been candid about his life as a father and his changing career perspective.
“In recent years, when I was a bit more reticent to step forward — have a life with kids and an oldest son with special needs, another kid who’s going to be a senior now, and another one who is (learning) to drive and he’s picking up guitar — I think it just gave me a sense of purpose that I don’t know that I would have appreciated as a younger man,” he said during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Some have hailed Fraser’s triumphant return to Hollywood as a comeback. While the actor said the label “comeback” doesn’t hurt his feelings, he prefers the word “reintroduction.”
“It’s an opportunity to reintroduce myself to an industry, who I do not believe forgot me as is being perpetrated,” he said. “I’ve just never been that far away.”
Like many of the other actors who picked up awards at Sunday’s Oscars, Fraser’s career was filled with highs and lows, and impacted by struggles and personal trauma.
At a Beverly Hills, Calif., luncheon in 2003, Fraser was allegedly groped by former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk. (Berk disputed Fraser’s account.) The experience, Fraser told GQ, made him feel like “something had been taken away” and “made (him) retreat.”
“I was blaming myself and I was miserable, because I was saying, ‘This is nothing; this guy reached around and he copped a feel.’ That summer wore on — and I can’t remember what I went on to work on next,” he told the magazine.
After the alleged incident, Fraser said he was rarely invited back to the Golden Globe Awards, presented by the HFPA, leading him to question if he was blacklisted for speaking out. Despite his nomination for “The Whale,” Fraser refused to attend this year’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony in January.
Fraser’s Oscar was one of two wins for “The Whale,” which, though applauded for its strong central performances, was criticized for its anti-fat stereotypes and Fraser’s use of a prosthetic suit.
Looking ahead, Fraser is to appear in Martin Scorsese’s western crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The Canadian actor said he hopes he can continue to work with people he can learn from.
“I know how to do the job. But I think more and more I feel like I want to feel like I’m collecting a stripe,” he said.