Daniel Franzese
Amanda Edwards/Getty Daniel Franzese
Daniel Franzese says he “and the other big queer guys” are overlooked forroles — like the one played by Brendan Fraser in The Whale.
“I love Brendan Fraser, [so] I’m very conflicted,” the mean girls actor, 44,tells PEOPLE of Fraser’s role as a gay 600-lb. reclusive writing instructorwho is struggling to reconnect with his teenage daughter ( _Stranger Things_star Sadie Sink). “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 goup there and wear a fat suit to play a 400-lb. queer man?”
Franzese goes on to say that “actors like me and my colleagues” would “jumpat” the opportunity to star a movie like The Whale which has awards buzz forFraser’s acclaimed performance.
“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’sthe dream,” Franzese continues. “So when they go time and time again and castsomeone like Brendan Fraser, me and the other big queer guys, we’re like,’What the…?’ We can’t take it!”
Reps for Fraser and the movie’s director, Darren Aronofsky, did notimmediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment Monday.
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Brendan Fraser in The Whale
Courtesy of A24 Brendan Fraser in The Whale (2022)
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Franzese tells PEOPLE that Aronofsky “is one of [his] favorite directors,” butsays, “I would have loved to have read for this. I mean, who knows more aboutbeing an obese queer man than an obese queer man?”
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“But I guess you can go ahead and wear a fat suit and do what you got to doand get your Oscar. We’ll just sit here, waiting,” Franzese says.
According to the RuPaul ‘s Secret Celebrity Drag Race star, “The biggestproblem we have right now in our industry is that people like me and mycolleagues can’t really sell movies overseas if we are actually queer becausethe world is homophobic.”
“Even if America is ready for a gay person in the lead like that, they have ahard time selling the movie overseas, so they get scared,” Franzese says. “Butit’s going to take risk-takers and real trailblazers to let us cut our teethin these roles as actors so we, too, can have a shot at a full career inHollywood.”
RELATED VIDEO: The Whale Star Brendan Fraser Felt “Sense of Vertigo”Removing 600 Ibs.-Man Prosthetic Suit
Aronofsky, 53, told Vanity Fair in an interview published last month thatFraser carried between 50 and 300 extra pounds during filming, depending onthe scene. The movie takes place entirely within his character Charlie’s homeover the course of less than a week.
“I became accustomed to wearing Charlie’s body pretty quickly,” Fraser toldthe PEOPLE and EW video studio during an interview at the 2022 TorontoInternational Film Festival earlier this month, according to EntertainmentWeekly. “I discovered that, once I took it off, I could still feel thesensation of wearing it, almost like an undulation.”
The Mummy star added, “At the same time, once I took all the applicationsoff at the end of the day, I felt a deepening sense of respect for people wholive in that corporal being, because I could remove it like clothing andwardrobe and makeup , and their challenge to do that with their own body isnot as sudden.”
The actor, who reportedly worked with the Obesity Action Coalition forresearch, said his experience in The Whale “gave me an appreciation for theincredible courage they have to possess themself with for their very survival,and it takes an incredibly strong-willed and physically strong person to liveinside a body that is, in Charlie’s case, hundreds and hundreds of pounds. “
Honoree Brendan Fraser accepts the TIFF Tribute Award for Performancepresented by IMDbPro for ‘The Whale’ onstage at the TIFF Tribute Awards Galaduring the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival at The Fairmont Royal YorkHotel on September 11, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario.
Tommaso Boddi/Getty Brendan Fraser
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“In my mind, it looked like it belonged in the Tate Modern gallery,” Fraseradded of the mold that was created for him from digital scans of his body. “Itwas that striking to behold. I say this because it’s important to have respectfor those who do have that corporal being.”
“I learned almost in a way, poetically, that you need to have incrediblystrong will of spirit and body to inhabit a body the size of Charlie’s, andthat’s an appreciation that I grew to respect more and more each day,” hesaid.
The Whale marks Fraser’s first leading role since 2013’s breakout_according to _variety . He had a role in last year’s No Sudden Move plusrecent TV stints on shows like Doom Patrol , The Affair and Trust.Fraser was expected to play the villain in the HBO Max batgirl movie beforeit was reported in August that the film was shelved indefinitely.
Samuel D. Hunter wrote the screenplay based on his play of the same name. The2012 production debuted off-Broadway to acclaim from The New York Times andit won a Drama Desk Award, the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play and aGLAAD Media Award.