Darren Aronofsky Says Fat Suit Criticisms of The Whale ‘Make No Sense to Me’

Director Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, The Whale, has been receiving plenty of attention since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival back in September. While The Whale’s performances have gotten plenty of positive reception, the film itself has also been the subject of controversy for its representation of bigger-bodied individuals and its use of a fat suit for its star Brendan Fraser. In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, the cast of The Whale discussed their experiences working on the film. The Black Swan director also responded to The Whale’s backlash and offered his thoughts on the movie and what he believes it represents.

The Whale, which follows a 600-pound middle-aged English teacher named Charlie, is based on a play by Samuel D. Hunter. To portray Charlie, Fraser donned heavy body and facial prosthetics in order to transform his physical appearance into that of larger sized man.

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“Charlie is not the person he presents,” Fraser stated. “He’s not the person who we so often dismiss. He’s a man who lives with obesity, but he’s also a father and he’s also a teacher. He’s someone who can bring out the best in others even when they can’t see that in themselves. Tragically, he can’t do that for himself.” Fraser added, “It’s a well-rounded character. The empathy that I think we all felt shooting this movie and telling Sam Hunter’s story is something that’s intensely personal to all of us.”

Still, despite Fraser’s compassion for his character, specific elements of The Whale have led to serious criticisms from critics. For example, Roger Ebert’s Christy Lemire (who reviewed the movie in early December) called The Whale “an abhorrent film” while noting that it did offer “excellent performances.” Others have accused Aronofsky of promoting fatphobia through the film’s use of stereotypes.

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However, the director told Yahoo that he had no idea that casting Fraser in the role of Charlie would cause so much backlash. “Actors have been using makeup since the beginning of acting — that’s one of their tools,” said Aronofsky. “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.”

Aronofsky then added he doesn’t think that Charlie conforms to any stereotypes. “People with obesity are generally written as bad guys or as punchlines. 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.”

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