Oscars rewind: A look back at Brendan Fraser’s victory for ‘The Whale’ as he embarks on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro may be the Oscar winners headlining Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but there’s actually a third among the supporting cast. So let’s take a look back at Brendan Fraser‘s journey to winning Best Actor for “The Whale” earlier this year.

Adapted from Samuel D. Hunter‘s 2012 stage play, “The Whale” starred Fraser as Charlie, a 600-pound English teacher who isolates himself from the world but is given a chance at redemption as he attempts to restore his relationship with his estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink). The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2022, where it got a standing ovation. From that moment on, experts started to pencil Fraser in as a front-runner for the Best Actor Oscar.

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Fraser had been very prolific in the 1990s and early 2000s, going from blockbuster hits like “George of the Jungle” and “The Mummy” to Oscar-winning dramas like “Gods and Monsters” and “Crash.” Yet his career slowed down from the late-2000s to mid-2010s for various health and personal reasons, including the fallout from former Hollywood Foreign Press president Philip Berk allegedly groping him in 2003. He was busy on the small screen, though, with supporting roles on “The Affair,” “Trust” and “Doom Patrol.”

“The Whale” marked Fraser’s first starring role in a major movie in over a decade. Early on in the season he won Best Actor prizes from various critics groups, though Colin Farrell won most of the critics’ awards for his performance as a man who tries to repair a cherished friendship in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Farrell’s most notable Best Actor prizes were from the National Society of Film Critics, National Board of Review, and Venice International Film Festival.

On January 10, 2023, the Golden Globes returned to NBC after no telecast took place the previous year due to boycotts against the HFPA over the lack of diversity within the organization. Prior to the nominations announcement, Fraser publicly revealed that because of his troubled history with them, he would not attend the ceremony even if he did get nominated. He indeed received a Best Film Drama Actor bid, but lost to Austin Butler for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in “Elvis.” Meanwhile, Farrell won Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor for “Banshees.”

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Then on January 15, the Critics Choice Awards took place. It was the first major precursor Fraser was in attendance for. Farrell was the odds-on favorite to win Best Actor. Yet it was Fraser who won, his first major prize of the season. Oscar nominations would come just nine days later, and “The Whale” was expected to receive five bids overall, according to Gold Derby’s combined predictions.

On the morning of January 24 when nominations were announced “The Whale” only received three noms: Best Actor (Fraser), Best Supporting Actress (Hong Chau), and Best Makeup and Hairstyling — as were expected. The other two categories it had been predicted in, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, it missed out on. Meanwhile “Banshees” and “Elvis” both made it into Best Picture, and racked up nine and eight total noms, respectively. Suddenly things didn’t look so good for Fraser as the last Best Actor winner whose film didn’t have a corresponding Best Picture nom was Jeff Bridges for “Crazy Heart” in 2009.

The BAFTA Awards were held on February 19. “Banshees” was predicted to win multiple accolades, including Best Actor for Farrell. Throughout the ceremony, it won Best Supporting Actress (Kerry Condon), Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film, as expected. Plus Barry Keoghan pulled off a big surprise in Best Supporting Actor over Ke Huy Quan, who had been winning awards left and right for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” You’d think those wins would bode well for Farrell, right?

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Yet Best Actor instead went to Butler. At that point, there was the feeling that if Farrell couldn’t win the BAFTA, especially for a movie that otherwise did well there, then his Oscar chances were diminished. Meanwhile, Butler’s victory made him an even more serious threat to win the Oscar. And several prominent actors publicly sang his praises such as Emily Blunt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Emma Thompson, and Denzel Washington.

On February 26 were the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Butler was narrowly predicted to win. It seemed like he could benefit from SAG being a larger, more populist awards group that would rally around the star of a crowd-pleasing hit. Meanwhile A24 reportedly didn’t send screeners out for “The Whale” because they wanted voters to see it in theaters. With that in mind, things weren’t looking good for Fraser … until Jessica Chastain announced him as the winner. The Oscar race for Best Actor was still on.

During the final stretch of Oscar voting, it still looked like a three-horse race, with a majority of predictors settled on Butler due to him playing a real person (which is usually catnip at the Oscars). It looked similar to 2008, when Mickey Rourke was the initial front-runner for his comeback performance in “The Wrestler,” another Darren Aronofsky film with limited academy support, but lost to Sean Penn for playing Harvey Milk in a Best Picture-nominated movie, “Milk.”

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On March 12 the 95th Academy Awards finally took place. Early on in the night Jennifer Connelly and Samuel L. Jackson presented Best Makeup and Hairstyling together. “Elvis” was expected to win that to go along with Butler’s projected victory, similar to previous dual lead-acting-and-makeup Oscar winners such as “La Vie en Rose,” “The Iron Lady,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Darkest Hour” and “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” So when Connelly announced “The Whale” as the winner instead, that might’ve been a sign of things to come later on.

Near the end of the ceremony Halle Berry and Chastain came out to present both lead acting categories together, starting with Best Actor. Berry said, “And the Oscar goes to…,” and opened the envelope to reveal, “Brendan Fraser.” After making his way to the stage to a massive standing ovation, Fraser was very emotional. He thanked the academy, A24, the cast and crew, his fellow nominees, his sons, his manager and his partner Jeanne Moore.

So how did Fraser pull through? I think a key factor was momentum. The fact that he won at the SAG Awards, the last major precursor before final Oscar voting started, gave him a boost at the right time. Not to mention that A24 campaigned the hell out of “The Whale” throughout final voting. Plus Fraser’s character was terminally ill. As Michael Keaton learned the hard way when he lost for his comeback in “Birdman” to Eddie Redmayne‘s portrayal of ALS patient Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” in 2014, when it comes to winning an Oscar, illness often wins.

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Meanwhile, Butler was only 31-years-old and brand new to the awards scene. While we did have two relatively young Best Actor winners for biopic performances in the past decade, they both were more established. When the aforementioned Redmayne won for “The Theory of Everything,” he was already on the scene as a Tony-winning stage actor with prominent film roles in “My Week with Marilyn” and “Les Misérables.” And when Rami Malek won for playing Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 2018, he was already known as an Emmy-winning actor for “Mr. Robot.”

Meanwhile, Butler was only previously known for a small supporting role in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which clearly wasn’t enough. Voters might’ve felt that he’ll have more opportunities in the future. For Farrell, we’ll likely never know how close the final vote was, but if there was any surge for him in the home stretch, it was too little too late. As for the other two nominees, Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) and Bill Nighy (“Living”), neither was considered likely to win due to their respective films having minimal support.

Fraser will soon be back as Cliff Steele/Robotman in the fourth and final season of “Doom Patrol” on Max and can be seen as lawyer W.S. Hamilton in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

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