Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has found himself having to defend his new movie The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, against accusations that it is fatphobic and anti-fat, with critics including the New York Times‘ Roxane Gay claiming the movie is “exploitative” and “sometimes cruel” in its portrayal of a massively obese person.
Others have criticized Aronofsky for not casting an authentically obsese gay man in the lead role.
Darren Aronofsky said the accusations make no sense because the movie’s protagonist, played by Fraser under mounds of prosthetics, is a complex character who is never just a joke.
“People with obesity are generally written as bad guys or as punchlines,” Aronofsky told Yahoo! Entertainment. “We wanted to create a fully worked-out character who has bad parts about him and good parts about him; Charlie is very selfish, but he’s also full of love and is seeking forgiveness. So [the controversy] makes no sense to me. Brendan Fraser is the right actor to play this role, and the film is an exercise in empathy.”
The Whale, which is currently in limited release, tells the story of a massively obese shut-in (Fraser) who spends his time teaching English classes via Zoom, gorging himself on food, and masturbating to gay porn. The movie has been hailed as a career comeback for Fraser — a phenomenon dubbed the “Brenaissance” — following his years spent wandering in the Hollywood wilderness.
But The Whale has also faced accusations that it is fatphobic and anti-fat because it engages in stereotypes about fat people, implying that they are all chronically depressed binge-eaters. Aronofsky has also faced criticism for not casting an authentically obese, gay actor in the lead role.
New York Times contributor Roxane Gay called the movie “exploitative” and “sometimes cruel” in a recent op-ed.
Mean Girls actor Daniel Franzese has publicly questioned why the movie cast Fraser — a straight actor who isn’t obese — when there are actors like himself who fit the bill.
“So when they go time and time again and cast someone like Brendan Fraser, me and the other big queer guys, we’re like, ‘What the…?’ We can’t take it!” he told People magazine.
“I guess you can go ahead and wear a fat suit and do what you got to do and get your Oscar. We’ll just sit here, waiting.”
Aronofsky said actors shouldn’t be criticized for using transformative prosthetics for a role.
“Actors have been using makeup since the beginning of acting — that’s one of their tools,” Aronofsky told Yahoo! Entertainment.
“And the lengths we went to to portray the realism of the make-up has never been done before. One of my first calls after casting Brendan was to my makeup artist, Adrien Morot. I asked him, ‘Can we do something that’s realistic?’ Because if it’s going to look like a joke, then we shouldn’t do it.”
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