In a small New York theatre in 2012, American playwright Samuel D. Hunter's play The Whale made its off-Broadway debut.
It was the story of Charlie, an English professor with severe obesity who is trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter in what might be the final days of his life.
It was a partly personal piece, drawing on Hunter's history with obesity, homosexuality and fundamentalist Christianity.
Hunter didn't realise that in the audience during one the earliest shows was Darren Aronofsky, the Oscar-nominated director of films including Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan.
Aronofsky remembers being "deeply moved" by the story.
"It touched me, but I was also in a room where everyone was moved and touched by it as well," the director told ABC RN's The Screen Show.
"There was something that went on in that room that inspired me to stay with this material for 10 years."
Aronofsky had a problem, however: casting Charlie.
"I had considered many different actors over the years and really, the only reason to make the movie was if I could find a Charlie," he says.
"He's such a beautifully written character but incredibly difficult to play both artistically and technically. I knew I needed to find this performer but no one really inspired me to take it on."
Then in January 2020, he saw a trailer for Journey to the End of the Night, a low-budget movie from 2006, starring Brendan Fraser.
"I, like most of the world, had kind of forgotten about Brendan Fraser … but a light bulb went off [in my head] and I was like, 'Oh, wow, we haven't considered Brendan. That's a really cool idea.'"
Having ruled the box office in the 90s with hits like Encino Man, George of the Jungle and The Mummy, Fraser has recently emerged from a long period of relative obscurity.
That slump was due, in part, to an incident in 2003 where he alleges that he was sexually assaulted by former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Philip Berk. Berk has strenuously denied the allegations.
While the "Brenaissance" is now firmly underway, evidenced by recent roles in Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move and DC TV series Doom Patrol, it's Fraser's performance in The Whale that has earned him his first Oscar nomination.
When the film, which Hunter also wrote, premiered at Venice International Film Festival in September, it received a six-minute standing ovation.
But despite the accolades heaped on Fraser's performance, the culmination of Aronofsky's decade-long filmmaking journey has proven divisive.
Making The Whale
After Aronofsky's light bulb moment in 2020, Fraser met with the director in his New York City office.
"[Fraser] came to visit me and was just an incredible gentleman and a beautiful guy," Aronofsky recalls.
"[He] was also, which is very key for directors, really hungry to work, and I knew because of the demands of the film that it would take someone with a drive like that."
That hunger was both on a career and artistic level.
"He hadn't been given an opportunity to [do substantive] work in a long time. I think he was doing these low-budget films and TV but nothing with real meat on the bones," says the director.
"It was clear he would give everything he got to it [this role] and I knew that's what it would take."
After the pandemic delayed production, they began shooting in March 2021. On each day of the 40-day shoot, Fraser spent four hours every morning getting make-up and prosthetics applied — including donning a fat suit — and then one hour at the end of the day removing it.
"That was a marathon physically, but also emotionally; Charlie goes through every single emotion in the book, he takes the audience through beat by beat, and that is just technically very, very hard as well," says Aronofsky.
Aronofsky faced his own challenges; while his previous film — the Jennifer Lawrence-led psychodrama Mother! — unfolded in a house, The Whale primarily takes place in Charlie's lounge room.
"I've always talked about the boundaries of filmmaking and how within the boundaries, that's where you have to find the movie," he says.
Aronofsky says another challenge was keeping audiences interested when the protagonist's movements were severely limited by his physicality.
"The greatest reward I've gotten as a filmmaker is people saying that they never felt claustrophobic [in the film] … that they never felt bored, they were always engaged. That's the power of the performances and the power of the text."
Fat suits and allegations of fatphobia
The film's casting, use of a fat suit and content have drawn criticism, including from American writer and social commentator Roxane Gay.
In an opinion piece titled The Cruel Spectacle of 'The Whale' in The New York Times, Gay writes: "It was crystal clear that Mr. Hunter and Mr. Aronofsky considered fatness to be the ultimate human failure, something despicable, to be avoided at all costs."
Reflecting on the accusations of fatphobia, Aronofsky told Screen Show host Jason Di Rosso:
"[What] was really important to me was the naturalism of the piece.
"I think an honest representation of that — that was incredibly deeply researched and backed up by all different types of groups and organisations and thought, and different types of artists coming together to create this kind of illusion that's never been seen before, which is a character living with this much weight — was an interesting challenge."
Aronofsky and Fraser consulted with a psychologist who specialises in eating disorders and obesity, as well as US advocacy group The Obesity Action Coalition, who facilitated conversations between Aronofsky, Fraser and people living with obesity.
"[Fatness] really sets people off. I think it is one of the last great prejudices that is acceptable. Of course, there's many prejudices out there, but it's totally acceptable to be fatphobic in so many different ways and to use disparaging terms against people living with obesity," the director says.
"This film is not really condoning it; we're not on either side of what it is to live with obesity. We're just portraying this one individual, this one character who is living with obesity in a real way, and just presenting it to audiences, and I think a lot of people come in with their own thoughts about that."
Grief and hope
Aronofsky says many early critics of The Whale hadn't actually seen the film, and he encourages people to watch before passing judgement.
"What we're starting to see around the world are people coming for the experience and not for the politics of it. They're coming for the humanity of Charlie, and how much Charlie is moving them," he says.
"People are leaving the film having [had] an incredible emotional experience and sharing it with people."
Charlie, whose self-destruction is fuelled by his grief over the suicide of his partner, still finds glimmers of hope and connection — in the witty barbs he exchanges with his daughter (Sadie Sink, Stranger Things) and his best friend Liz (Hong Chau, The Menu) and in his work as an online university teacher.
Aronofsky's parents were both public school teachers, who appeared in a number of his films, and they died while The Whale was in post-production.
But Aronofsky points out the entire cast and crew were "dealing with tremendous loss" as they made the film.
"We started shooting this before the vaccine existed, and we all knew people that were getting sick … and hearing about huge quantities of people dying unexpectedly."
Aronofsky says there were painful separations happening, caused by both political differences and lockdowns.
"I feel like Sam Hunter's message of human connection and forgiveness and consideration is more timely than ever, and that's what I was touched by — Sam's positivity, his humour through great darkness," he says.
"There's so much hope in Charlie, and getting a little piece of Charlie into the light was what drove so many of us while making the film.
"Then just to see how much light Brendan brought to Charlie: Every day, even though he was underneath all of that make-up, which was incredibly cumbersome, he was still able to project all of this positivity into the world."
The Whale is in cinemas now.
