Actor Brendan Fraser said that playing a morbidly obese man taught him that people with similar bodies are “incredibly” strong people, both mentally and physically.

The Whale, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, has already made a splash and many say it’s an Oscar contender.

Director Darren Aronofsky, who won the festival’s Golden Lion in 2008 for The Wrestler, a film based on Samuel D. Hunter’s play of the same name, tells the story of Charlie, a reclusive teacher at the end of his life. who is trying to reunite with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Frazier said the role was a learning curve for him. “It gave me an appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. I learned that you have to be an incredibly strong person, physically and mentally, to live in this,” she said.

“Charlie’s physical mobility is limited by his home space, which is his sofa. His story is told behind closed doors. It’s a light in a dark place. I think it’s poetic that the trauma he’s carrying shows up in the physical weight of his body. I had to learn to move in a completely new way. I have developed muscles I didn’t even know I had. I even felt dizzy at the end of the day when all the devices were removed, as if you stepped off the boat at the dock here in Venice,” the actor said.

Source: RES-EMI