Oscar Best Actor Brandon Fisher, out of the quagmire, get what you want丨 character

On March 13, Beijing time, at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, Brandon Fisher won the first Academy Award for Best Actor with his wonderful performance in the movie "Whale". Prior to this, Brandon's performance had received numerous accolades, including the American Critics' Choice Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. "Variety" magazine even commented that "Brandon Fisher's interpretation is more worthy of being seen than the movie itself".

Brandon Fisher.  PHOTO/IC PHOTO

In the movie "Whale", Brandon Fisher plays an English teacher Charlie, who left his family for his lover in his early years, but later his partner unfortunately died, he overate due to pain and guilt, and his weight skyrocketed to 272 kg. In the last moments of his life, he tried to repair his relationship with his daughter.

It is difficult for the audience to equate Charlie, who is wearing prosthetic props and lying on the sofa, with the muscular Brandon in the impression. Brandon impressed the audience the most was the explorer in the movie "The Mummy" series, with which he also became a first-line Hollywood actor at that time, with a salary of up to $12 million. However, when everyone thought that his acting career would continue to soar, his physical injuries caused by years of filming, as well as the mental trauma caused by the sexual harassment experience, disappeared from the public eye. Until "Whale" once again put him in the industry's attention.

Today, Brandon often exhorts himself with a quote from Hermann Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick: "I cannot predict the future, but whatever awaits me in the future, I will face it with a smile."

Ten years of searching, 90 kg prosthesis, 6 minutes of applause

The movie "Whale" was originally written by screenwriter Samuel A. A stage play created by D. Hunt, when it premiered on Broadway in 2012, Darren Aronofsky, the director who directed "Requiem for a Dream" and "Black Swan", was one of the audiences, he was deeply moved by the play and decided to adapt it into a movie.

For director Darren Aronofsky, the hardest part of filming the movie "Whale" was finding the right actor for the protagonist Charlie, and this search was nearly a decade.

However, the most difficult thing is to find the actor who plays the protagonist Charlie. To this end, the director spent nearly a decade, "considered almost everyone on the planet to play this role", and the script also attracted many actors to try it, but none of them felt as the director wanted.

In 2020, the director accidentally watched a low-budget thriller "Journey in the Night" (2006), starring Brandon Fisher attracted him. In fact, at that time, the director did not know much about Brandon Fisher, did not have much research on the roles he had played before, and did not watch his masterpiece "Campus Vice" until the end of the cooperation.

The two met in the director's office, the director talked about the story and the role, but didn't know if it could be filmed, Brandon Fisher was a little flattered, and he wasn't sure if he could play the role. Soon after, Brandon received a phone call telling him that he had taken the role of Charlie. Recalling what it felt like at the time, he said, it was like "fate is calling me."

"All I can say is that the right actor, at the right time, met the right role, and having Brandon star was one of the reasons we made this film," says director Darren Aronofsky.

Charlie in the film weighs 272 kilograms and needs to use makeup, prosthetics and CG technology to present the character. Makeup stylist Adrian Morott first used "digital sculpting" technology to complete the "weight gain" for Brandon's prototype scan, and then made a mold through 3D printing, filled with a large amount of silicone, and then disassembled and separated, and those "hypertrophied" prostheses were completed. The prosthesis is so heavy that a person cannot turn it, so lighter foam latex is used for large parts such as the torso. Even so, the entire set of prostheses weighs 90 kg.

After the prosthesis was made, it took Brandon 6 hours to try it on for the first time, and then it took 4 hours to put it on and take it off in 1 hour every day. In order to facilitate Brandon to eat and go to the toilet between filming, one arm of the prosthesis can be quickly disassembled, and the staff should be informed 1 hour in advance to go to the toilet, and there are about 5 to 7 people to assist, remove the arm, open the zipper and button at the bottom, help him return to the wheelchair, and then push him to the bathroom.

Brandon Fisher's appearance after wearing the prosthesis.

Brandon said: "Without seamless special effects makeup, there would be no film". At the end of each day of filming, when Brandon took off the prop suit, he would feel a little dizzy, but at the same time a little real, because the crew did not use all special effects, but specially designed prop costumes under the premise of following the laws of gravity and physics, so that he felt that he had the same body as Charlie when performing.

In addition to the shaping of appearance, for Brandon, Charlie's psychological portrayal is more challenging. Before joining the group, Brandon interviewed many people who had undergone bariatric surgery, watched a lot of related documentaries and dramas, and understood the mental journey of these people.

The whole film is a bit like a stage play, Charlie never leaves the house, like a giant whale stranded on the beach, waiting to die. In this enclosed space, the four characters of caretaker, missionary, daughter, and ex-wife appear one after another, and they collide emotionally with Charlie.

Brandon's portrayal of Charlie infuses a great deal of personal empathy. Perhaps, 10 years ago, he couldn't play Charlie because he didn't have much life experience, didn't become an experienced enough father, and didn't know what it meant to have a daughter in his life. And his experience over the years eventually helped him complete such a complex and rich role as Charlie, and also made his previous long wait worth it.

Last year, after the premiere of "Whale" at the Venice Film Festival, the audience stood up and gave Brandon a six-minute applause. He stood up, his face full of surprise, perhaps he hadn't enjoyed such treatment in too long, and he straightened his clothes, looking a little overwhelmed. Perhaps he didn't quite believe that he would be recognized by the audience again after more than ten years, so he bowed deeply to the audience.

"Tarzan" "The Mummy", he became a Hollywood celebrity

Born in Indiana in 1968, Brandon is the youngest of four boys. His parents were Canadian, his mother was a sales consultant, and his father worked in the Canadian tourism sector. Because of his father's work, Brandon moved frequently as a child, changing schools every few years, and he lived in Eureka, Seattle, Ottawa, and even the Netherlands and Switzerland for a while, learning to adapt to new environments from an early age, which developed a keen eye for the world around him.

During a break in secondary school, he attended a professional theatrical performance at London's West End Theatre and was immediately fascinated when he was 12 years old. In high school he joined the choir of musical theater and made acting his ambition. After graduating from the Cornwall School of the Arts in Seattle in 1990, he began acting at a small acting college in New York, planning to pursue a master's degree in performing arts, but decided to stay in Hollywood after a trip to Los Angeles.

The movie "School Vice" is Brandon Fisher's first film as the protagonist. (Ben Affleck, left)

Because of a sculptural face and a good body, his career started smoothly and soon appeared on the big screen. 1992's "School Vice" was his first film to star as a leading character. The cast of the film has basically become famous since the 90s, such as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell ("Smell the Woman"). Before the audition, he and Matt Damon were trained in drama school and did not have much acting experience in front of the camera, and he told himself to learn how to collect some without acting for the last row of audiences. In the film, Brandon plays an excellent football player, but after his Jewish identity is made public, he is ostracized by his classmates. This is extremely relevant to his childhood wandering life experience, which has gained industry recognition in his performance.

The movie "Tarzan of the Forest", released five years later, began to give Brandon a taste of popularity. In this Disney live-action film based on the TV cartoon series, Brandon plays George who was raised by an orangutan as a child, with long flowing hair, aqua-blue pupils, and eight-pack abs. He did all the action stunts independently, and once he was hoisted 60 feet in the air by a crane and was able to dive 300 feet at 30 miles per hour. The film was a huge success after its release, grossing $174 million worldwide.

Brandon Fisher was first known for the movie "Tarzan of the Forest".

What really put Brandon on the peak of his acting career was the movie "The Mummy" launched by Universal Pictures in 1999. The film contains many elements such as action, comedy, romance, adventure, thriller and so on, and before filming, the producers insisted on shooting in Morocco, one of the filming locations of "Lawrence of Arabia", and the desert environment gave a sense of realism. At first, in order to find starring candidates, the director sent audition invitations to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck and others, but the other party refused on the grounds of schedule, and when he was desperate, the director accidentally saw Brandon's "Tarzan of the Forest" and sent an invitation. As a result, after the film was released, it swept the global box office of 416 million US dollars.

The commercial success of "The Mummy" soon spawned the next two sequels. 2001's "The Mummy Returns" and 2008's "The Mummy 3" grossed $433 million and $403 million respectively at the global box office. At that time, Brandon's salary also reached a staggering $12 million, jumping into the Hollywood first-line cast.

The movie "The Mummy" series starring Brandon Fisher has received a super high box office. (Rachel Weisz on the right)

Brandon's career seems to be going in a good direction, when he almost became the actor of the new Superman, has already put on the Superman costume, and is close to the official appearance, but unfortunately due to problems in the production process, the project was cut.

A decade of disappearance

What no one expected was that after the "Mummy" series, Brandon's career plummeted.

In 2008, he starred in the fantasy adventure film "Ink Heart", which failed miserably at the box office. In the same year, he starred in the action-adventure film "Adventures in the Center of the Earth", which received 244 million US dollars at the global box office, and the results were okay. Although it cannot achieve the results of "The Mummy", if it continues to be filmed, it will also become a more popular series of movies. However, when the investor was preparing for the second part, he changed the director of the first part, and Brandon protested, and as a result, he was also kicked out, completing Dwayne Johnson and becoming the second starring actor.

After that, Brandon basically did not have a chance with big-budget films, lost box office appeal in the market, sporadically took on some small roles, starred in most of the small-cost film and television works, and basically disappeared from the public eye in the past decade.

In fact, because most of the action scenes in his previous works were personally played by Brandon, his body has been plagued by diseases for many years: when filming "Tarzan of the Forest", he broke his teeth; There is a hanging scene in "The Mummy", because the rope is tied too tightly, he once suffocated and fell unconscious, and was sent to the hospital for emergency before waking up; filming "The Mummy Returns", he broke three ribs and torn his lumbar disc; When filming "The Mummy 3", he was covered with bandages and covered with ice.

When starring in the movie "The Mummy 3", Brandon Fisher was already injured.

During the eight years of filming the Mummy series, he went back and forth to the hospital and underwent many different surgeries, including knee replacement, laminectomy and vocal cord repair surgery. The consequence of filming too hard that year was that the body began to light up red. Brandon recalls these years a little sad, feeling like an overworked horse in the novel "Animal Farm", constantly working every day. Due to the loss of control of his body shape and long-term medication, his body continues to improve, and his former strong body is long gone.

Woe was not alone, and there were problems with his marriage. He and his wife filed for divorce in 2007, and under the divorce settlement, he paid $900,000 a year in alimony for his wife. When Hurricane Sandy swept through the United States in 2012, he was unfortunately hit in the back by a tree while cleaning up a tree that had fallen at home, resulting in a recurrence of back wounds originally caused by filming injuries, after which he underwent back correction surgery and rehabilitation. During his recovery, he needed to travel in a wheelchair, and as a result, he injured his back, making it impossible for him to take action movies again.

Over the years, Brandon has been suffering from physical torture and life pressure, but deep down he has also suffered mental torment.

In 2018, in an interview, Brandon voiced a psychological shadow that had plagued him for many years. In the summer of 2003, Brandon, who was in his prime at the time, attended a dinner hosted by the Golden Globe organizer Foreign Press Association in Beverly Hills, and as Brandon was about to leave, Philip Burke, then president of the association, came to shake hands and sexually harassed Brandon.

"I was scared and aggrieved, I felt like a child, like a ball in my throat, I thought I was going to cry." Fearing that it would affect his career, he swallowed his anger and left the banquet and kept the secret to himself, until years later that he mustered the courage to demand a written apology from the Golden Globe Association.

Philip Burke did write a letter: "My apology does not mean an admission of misconduct, but if I did anything upsetting Mr. Fisher, it was not intentional, and I apologize for it," but apparently did not admit to the sexual harassment allegations. Ironically, it wasn't until 2021 that Philip Burke was removed from the association.

Whether it is physical pain or mental trauma, it is more or less changing the direction of Brandon's life and career trajectory. Although his body is blessed and no longer has box office appeal in the market, the various tribulations and pains of the past have also made Brandon the current and Charlie in the movie "Whale".

In February this year, Brandon Fisher won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for the movie "Whale".  PHOTO/IC PHOTO

When winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, Brandon choked up and delivered a touching acceptance speech: "I will cherish this award, but what I cherish even more is that the card I have been keeping in my wallet before, which is the Screen Actors Guild membership card I received in 1991, which makes me feel like I belong to a team, actors want to find their own belonging, and at that moment, I found my place." I never thought I could receive a character so similar to myself, Charlie in "Whale" is a person full of regrets, but he is also in the ocean of hope, I have also been adrift in that sea, riding the wind and waves, being photographed by powerful waves into the bottom of the sea, I don't know where I am. I also want to tell the actors who are going through this, I know how you feel, please believe me, just keep going a little longer, step by step, and you will finally get out of the quagmire and get what you want. ”

Beijing News reporter Teng Chao

Chief Editor Wu Dongni

Proofreader Wu Xingfa