See Brendan Fraser's painstaking transformation for The Whale in time-lapse video
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Makeup-and-prosthetics designer Adrien Morot needed to create a wearable 600-pound man for Brendan Fraser's turn in The Whale, but to hear him describe the task at hand is to appreciate a field of work that goes well beyond the technical.
"How do you do makeup that's non-distracting while obviously being respectful and has empathy and accuracy," Morot explains, "and which people will forget after the initial shock of seeing Brendan Fraser in that state? So people will just dive into the story and see Charlie for the rest of the movie? Those were the biggest challenges right off the bat."
After consulting with Fraser and director Darren Aronofsky — discussions that put a priority on preserving the freedom of the performance — Morot says he created several silicone-based fabrications, adding hundreds of pounds to Fraser's frame.
A24 Makeup artist Adrien Morot (right) gets 'The Whale' star Brendan Fraser into his prosthetic makeup.
"We had two facial pieces, one for the front, and one for the back, going all the way down to his upper chest," Morot tells EW. "Then, on most of the days, he had arms that were going from the tip of his fingers all the way to his shoulder that would sort of overlap with the chest piece. So he had that on both sides, and then he had legs that would go up to his waist, like that, and then he had a mid-section here."
How did Fraser handle the added weight? Morot has only praise for the Oscar-nominated actor, whom he calls the kindest person he's ever met and "not of this planet."
Morot recalls, "Brendan was like, 'You're the expert — I trust you. The only thing that I want is to make sure that it's accurate and respectful. I don't want this to be a joke. I don't want this to be a punchline.'"
Watch our exclusive clip of the application process above. And read our full interview with Morot, also the designer of the dancing demon doll M3GAN; he's having quite a year. It's all in the latest edition of EW's The Awardist digital magazine.
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