- As Brendan Fraser wins the best actor Oscar for The Whale, much spotlight is shown on his Hollywood struggle through the years.
- The star has been a vocal mental health advocate, having battled depression and trauma since the 2000s.
At the Oscars of 2023, American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser of The Mummy fame bagged the award for best actor for The Whale (2022), a movie in which he starred as a morbidly obese, reclusive teacher and estranged father.
A visibly emotional Fraser closed his “comeback” speech by stating: “I started in this business 30 years ago. Things didn’t come easily to me but there was a facility I didn’t appreciate at the time until it stopped.”
What Happened To Brendan Fraser After His Blacklisting In Hollywood?
As with several previous interviews, Fraser touched on his early years in Hollywood in his Oscars speech. The actor dominated the Hollywood scene in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, only to disappear for nearly two decades. In 2018, he emerged out of oblivion and openly spoke of the sexual assault that left him traumatized.
Fraser’s confession of former HFPA President Philip Berk’s groping him in the summer of 2003 and the former’s “Hollywood ban” slowed down his promising acting career in the 2000s.
Coupled with several box-office bombs, multiple life-threatening surgeries, a broken marriage, and a child support payment legal battle, he ended up taking an unwanted career hiatus.
As the movie roles dried up, he struggled to find work and with negative press attention. Brendan Fraser’s tragedy was compounded by mental health issues like trauma, depression, and low self-esteem.
Brendan Fraser’s Mental Health Advocacy
Over the years, like his female peers, Frazer has criticized his objectified and hypersexualized roles in the wildly successful The Mummy franchise, Bedazzled, and George of the Jungle. He has raised awareness about the mental health and body image issues that extremely masculine Hollywood action heroes face in their constricted acting careers.
Moreover, at the height of the #MeTooMovement in Hollywood, his confession of his sexual harassment gave impetus to men’s stories of sexual violation. In the process, he also became an advocate for men’s mental health.
And he hasn’t stopped since! For example, for his comeback film The Whale, he had chosen to play the rather unconventional role of a 600-pound homosexual man confined to a wheelchair. Much like the confession that cost him a glittering career, his work served to successfully draw attention to the difficulties associated with obesity.
He elaborated in an interview: “We can often lose sight that those [with obesity] are human beings with thoughts and feelings and hearts and families and everything … Fundamentally, being hurtful towards one another with what we say can have real life health concerns. And it seems like a simple enough thing we can do better to change that.”
A Triumphant Hollywood Return?
Brendan Fraser’s depression battle and the reclamation of his long-deserved fame have been celebrated as a significant Hollywood comeback. By swapping the world of action and adventure for drama, he has successfully overcome the professional hurdles and personal shortcomings that silently plague male actors in Hollywood.
His is indeed a story of hard work, the indomitable human spirit, and the power of courage and empathy!
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