Watch Brendan Fraser's emotional comeback in first trailer for The Whale
The first trailer for The Whale finally gives us our first look at Brendan Fraser's emotional, Oscar-bound performance in Darren Aronofsky's new drama.
The Whale follows Fraser as a 600-pound man named Charlie, a gay college professor in the last days of his life as he grapples with grave obesity and the memories of his deceased lover.
While his close friend and nurse, Liz (Watchmen's Hong Chau), cares for him and a peculiar stranger (Ty Simpkins) complicates his journey after showing up at his door, Charlie also attempts to reconnect with his estranged, troubled daughter (Stranger Things' Sadie Sink) and ex-wife (Samantha Morton), leading him down a path of fresh discovery at the end of his life.
"Do you ever get the feeling people are incapable of not caring?" Fraser says in the sparse clip, which includes various shots of Charlie's apartment, where the entire film takes place, as well as the people in his life. "People are amazing."
A24 Brendan Fraser makes an emotional comeback in 'The Whale' trailer.
Written by playwright Samuel D. Hunter as an adaptation of his 2013 stage production of the same name, The Whale is an exercise in empathy, not ridicule, the screenwriter previously told EW.
"I wrote this play [upon which the movie is based] because I felt like I'd never seen this story told," Hunter explained when asked how he felt about the criticisms of fatphobia that have been directed at the film.
"I understand why people have some of those reactions because, look, the history of portraying people suffering with obesity in cinema is not good, they are fundamentally objects of derision or jokes, or they're completely one-dimensional. I understand when presented with this at face value, a lot of people have a reaction," he continued.
He went on to introduce the idea that The Whale is "an invitation" for viewers "to walk in this door and be with this guy" and form an emotional connection.
Ari + Louise 'The Whale' team: Samuel D. Hunter, Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Darren Aronofsky, and Ty Simpkins.
"I think you kind of have to take the invitation, you know what I mean? You have to walk in the door," he finished. "If you meet that invitation with a furrowed brow, then we're kind of at an impasse. But, if you do take that invitation and go inside, I think you'll find that this is the diametric opposite of the way obesity has traditionally been portrayed and dealt with in cinema."
A24 will release The Whale to theaters on Dec. 9. Watch the first trailer above.
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