In ‘The Whale’, Brendan Fraser Plays Gay and Wears a Fatsuit. Daniel Franzese Has Thoughts – Them

If you’ve been following this year’s Oscar race, you know that beloved actor Brendan Fraser is the odds-on favorite to win best actor for his portrayal of Charlie, a 600-lb. gay man, in Darren Aronofsky’s film The Whale. While the use of a fatsuit in the film has already sparked some controversy, Mean Girls actor Daniel Franzese recently opened up about seeing Fraser be praised for becoming a fat gay man for the film.

“I love Brendan Fraser, [so] I’m very conflicted,” Franzese told People about the film, in which Fraser plays a recluse who wants to reconnect with his young daughter. “Seeing him get up so modest in Venice and have that moment, I was very happy for him. He’s a lovely man. And it’s great. But why? Why go up there and wear a fat suit to play a 400-lb. queer man?”

Franzese said that he and “the other big queer guys” are often overlooked for these types of roles and that actors like him would “jump” at the chance to star in such a film.

“To finally have a chance to be in a prestige film that might be award-nominated, where stories about people who look like us are being told? That’s the dream,” Franzese said. “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!”

People reached out to both Fraser and Aronofsky for comment and did not hear back by the time their story was published.

Though still surprisingly common in media, the use of fatsuits has come under increasing scrutiny. Earlier this year, it was revealed that actress Emma Thompson donned a fatsuit to play Agatha Trunchbull in the Netflix version of Matilda the Musical. While both fat suits and “gayface” are relatively common, Fraser’s portrayal brings both tropes together. Adding to the controversy is that actors’ transformations are usually played up as being “awards bait,” and given that Fraser is the frontrunner in his category right now, that train is right on time.

Franzese said he “would have loved to have read for this” role. “I mean, who knows more about being an obese queer man than an obese queer man?” He then criticized Hollywood, saying, “But 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.”