Brendan Fraser, star of The Whale, says he has been told his Oscar-nominated role as Charlie will save lives.
"They believe that Charlie's going to save someone's life, many people's lives, so that means a lot to me", Fraser said in a Zoom interview with ABC News.
Originally a play by Samuel D. Hunter, the story follows Charlie, a man suffering from severe obesity, who in his dying days attempts to reconnect with his teenage daughter.
The film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, also stars Sadie Sink, Hong Chau and Ty Simpkins.
Fraser says he spoke with people in the obesity community and he got astonishing responses about living with the disease.
"They all had something in common — they all seem to have someone in their youth who spoke to them in a way that was really harsh, and it's set into motion, almost like a chain reaction that carried into their current lives as adults."
"Vindictive speech can do damage to people from a health standpoint, and they were living proof. So I felt I needed to tell their story with as much authenticity as I could."
The film received a standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice International Film Festival. Despite polarising reviews of the film, Fraser says the obesity community has been receptive to his character.
"A guy like Charlie has been derided and mocked all his life, and he had to make a choice about if or not to collapse on himself or take the other point of view, which is to just be positive," Fraser said.
"I think I could identify with the pain that he had."
The writer, Hunter, based the story on his own life and experiences with obesity.
"I know many people who are big, happy, and healthy, but I wasn't," Hunter says in the film's production notes.
"I had a lot of unprocessed emotions from attending a fundamentalist Christian school where my sexuality came to bear in an ugly way, and that emerged in an unhealthy relationship with food.
"When I started writing The Whale, I think it all just came pouring out of me."
Fraser is known for a string of blockbuster hits in the 90s and 00s including The Mummy and George of the Jungle, and he most recently starred in Steven Soderberg's No Sudden Move.
The Whale has widely been described as Fraser's comeback film, and he's received an Oscar nod for Best Actor for the role.
The film has also received Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Hong Chau, and Best Make-Up and Hairstyling.
Fraser said he hoped audiences will get the film's message about the need to be kind to one another.
"A man like Charlie can be easily dismissed and is frequently a story that plays out behind closed doors, and we don't know the inner life of this man," he said.
"Don't judge a book by its cover, that's my hope."
Preview sessions of The Whale are currently screening before its wider release on February 2.
