Brendan Fraser (‘The Whale’) is now on top of Oscar Experts’ odds for Best Actor
Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) has taken over the lead in our Oscar Experts’ predictions for Best Actor. This follows his film’s premieres at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, both of which ended in lengthy standing ovations. Fraser is also the recipient of a tribute award at the Toronto fest, which could be just the start of his awards journey.
Fraser stars in the film as a 600-pound man trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter after abandoning his family. The film is directed by Darren Aronofsky and has been met with generally positive, though not glowing reviews — 64 on MetaCritic, 78% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes — but Fraser’s performance has been called “fully and radiantly human,” “a confident leap forward,” and “a truly great comeback performance.”
As of this writing 14 Expert journalists are predicting the Best Actor race — with more to come as the season progresses — and 13 are predicting a nomination for Fraser with nine betting on his victory: Shawn Edwards (WDAF-TV Fox), Susan King (Gold Derby), Wilson Morales (Black Film and TV), Michael Musto (Queerty), Perri Nemiroff (Collider), Christopher Rose (Gold Derby), Keith Simanton (IMDb), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), and Peter Travers (ABC).
This would be the first Oscar nomination and win for Fraser, who is coming back from a period of health woes and other personal challenges. Hollywood does love an inspiring comeback story, both on-screen and off, as evidenced by Mickey Rourke‘s nomination for a previous Aronofsky film, “The Wrestler” (2008), to name just one example. And Fraser does have an awards pedigree to build on. He won SAG and Critics Choice Awards as a member of the cast of “Crash” (2005). He also had prominent roles in the Oscar-nominated films “Gods and Monsters” (1998) and “The Quiet American” (2002). And after “The Whale” he’ll be seen in Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 2023. So this may not be his only chance at Oscar coming up.
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