Here's How Much Time Brendan Fraser Had To Spend On The Whale Make-Up Every Day
It is no secret that actors use make-up in order to look more like their character — sometimes it can be really challenging.
There is an entire special profession of make-up artist who spends their days spiffing future characters' appearance for the role.
Such preparations may vary from a swift half-a-minute brushing on the face to the creation of a different body around yours that takes hours.
This technique is called prosthetic make-up because it uses many tools available to us nowadays to literally make a new/different/another part of the body.
In a recent interview on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Brendan Fraser spoke about his character Charlie, the main character of the Oscar-nominated film The Whale, released in December, 2022.
Without getting into the details of the plot, we will say that Charlie is morbidly obese to the extent that he can't walk by himself anymore.
The film's creators had a goal of realistically showing his life in all its complexities. And Brendan Fraser who portrays him told Kelly and her audience how the crew managed to do so.
The actor started with mentioning a professional dance instructor, savvy about everything concerning human moves. Fraser was taught to walk and move just like an obese person would, without ignoring his prosthetic body size.
"It was a cumbersome costume… appropriately," the actor admitted, saying that it was made to obey all laws of physics and gravity, which was also one of his own main endeavors.
Then there was a short clip shown of Brendan getting into the character. It turns out the make-up artists spent, on average, more than 4 hours on creating Charlie every time the actor was to be filmed.
They used to start early in the morning, so early that by 6 AM Fraser would fall asleep, and continue up until everything was in place.
"It was very important that we have such specificity because up until now the use of this costuming in films and make-up has always been, to my mind, a sort of a mean joke or to vilify a character. And I don't think we have to do that any longer," the actor summed up their goals.
Indeed, this depth of attention to detail did pay off. The film and Fraser himself were nominated for several awards, which they truly deserve, as well as they deserve the warm-shoulder reception among the audience.