TORONTO — Canadian-American film star Brendan Fraser says he’s a changed man since most audiences last saw him.
The veteran screen star brought his intimate drama “The Whale” to the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, with critics hailing his performance a triumphant comeback.
It comes on the heels of a rapturous world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where a lengthy standing ovation brought Fraser to tears.
Fraser, who went to high school in Toronto but was born in the United States to Canadian parents, says his retreat from the spotlight in recent years brought him closer to his kids, which gave him “a sense of purpose” he would not have appreciated when he was younger.
Fraser’s star stature largely plummeted in the late 2000s following a prolific period that ranged from comedy “Encino Man,” action series “The Mummy,” and the Oscar-winner “Crash,” to relative duds “Monkey Bone” and “Furry Vengeance.”
He’s now drawing critical kudos for his starring turn in the buzzy Darren Aronofsky drama “The Whale,” in which he plays a reclusive 600-pound English teacher grappling with regret. He’s also receiving an acting award at TIFF, which runs through Sept. 18.
Fraser says he’s got a new perspective on his career goals and what he’d like his body of work to reflect.
“So often, I have just felt like a working actor who was glad to have a job: ‘What do you got? I’ll do it.’ And that’s a different guy than who I am right now,” Fraser said Sunday during a whirlwind of press and festival appearances.
“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.”
Fraser says 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 says.
“It was meaningful to work with Danny Boyle. It was meaningful to work with Steven Soderbergh. It was meaningful to work with Martin Scorsese. I mean pinch me, but I got a great deal out of that. And Darren is no exception.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2022.
