It's rare for me to see such a cute expression on a 54-year-old middle-aged man's face in public.
The restraint that everyone must have been frightened by.
After standing up, enjoy the applause for too long, wrinkle and cry like a child, and draw circles on the ground with his feet with a little shame.
At the scene of the Venice premiere of the new film last year, after the movie, everyone stood up and applauded him.
Later, the new film helped him win the 29th Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor - this award can be called the Oscar pre-station.
This time, he successfully reached the next station, the highest stage for the first time in 32 years, the Oscar actor.
Brendan Fraser.
This little fat man who is a little cute has a bumpy life situation. The teenager became famous, quickly frustrated, became addicted in middle age, and the Jedi fought back.
And this process can almost be found on the big screen.
The older you get, the more you value every opportunity to be excited.
Well, because of him, believe it again.
The whale has not changed, and it will be lucky when the time comes.
01
Maybe the 90s or more precisely, the 95s, will be a little unfamiliar with this name.
But when you light up a photo, you must have an impression.
Yes, the muscular handsome man in "Tarzan of the Forest" who should show off.
How handsome is Brandon?
At the age of 21, he went to Los Angeles to find a film, and his first play was played in "A Basket of Spring Color" starring the handsome guy Revan Phoenix.
After the performance was discovered by the industry, the second film was the protagonist.
Sunny, Zhouzheng, tender.
Released in 1991, the first starring "Frozen Primitive" did not have much spark, and another movie starring in the same year "Campus Vice" came out and became popular.
It's not that the quality of this movie is so good, the box office is only more than 14 million, and the performance is mediocre.
Fire is because of the face.
In this movie, you can see the fledgling Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell, these later Hollywood quasi-first-line, all of whom are supporting roles in Brandon.
Because of this play, Du Meng was found and signed by the agent
After this film, he has since had a name in Hollywood.
Then, in 1997, he starred in the comedy film "Tarzan of the Forest" adapted from an automatic drawing, which made him out of the circle in all directions.
It is not an exaggeration to say that he sells meat, he plays George is a stupid handsome guy who grew up in the jungle, and his proclivity for not liking clothes makes many people feast their eyes.
The film ended up at the 10th grossing office of the year with $1.05 billion.
After the fire, Brandon's team had a clear idea of film selection - niche literature and art, rushing for awards.
In 1998 "Gods and Beasts", the wonderful love of the wooden gardener and the aging director, and "Gandalf" Ian McKellen, who made his first Olympic breakthrough with this film and stopped being shortlisted.
In 2004, he focused on racial discrimination and defeated "Crash", which won the Oscar for Best Picture that hit "Brokeback Mountain".
Comedy action, get traffic.
In ten years, he participated in the "Mummy" series (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Mummy 3: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), and 2008's "Adventures at the Center of the Earth".
At this time, Brandon, Agni cooking oil, was a hot action star in Hollywood, and he was already famous, and the only thing that lost color at that time was acting.
Just when everyone thought he was going to continue climbing, Brandon gradually faded out.
He has a play, but he is no longer the protagonist, and there are fewer and fewer film contracts.
Supporting roles and dragon sets are commonplace, and he was even reduced to dubbing supporting characters who had few scenes in cartoons.
When I appeared under the flash again, I was frustrated and exhausted.
02
When did we notice that Brandon had disappeared for a long time?
7 years ago, he gave an interview to the media once in order to promote a male series.
At that time, the new drama "Trust" was about to be launched, and he was interviewed in order to cooperate with the publicity. (This film doesn't even have him in the trailer)
He was a little rusty and restrained, and his eyes were a little gloomy.
He had just lost his mother.
Brandon, just like that, returned to the public in a "broken" state. His sincere actions that he did not hide his fear and sadness attracted huge attention on social networking sites.
So we realized that he was not the cheerful sunny silly boy for a long time.
The change in body shape is just the most intuitive.
The sound is no longer as loud as usual, but more vibrato with an electric effect.
In the decade when Brandon disappeared, he also lost his health.
Starting with "Tarzan of the Forest", Brandon did not use a stand-in, and all the action scenes were personally in battle.
Without a foundation in martial arts, work and sincerity, action star Brandon gained not only fame, but also full of pain.
Being roasted on the fire, hitting the wall, jumping into the pit from a height, and various beating and being beaten scenes, Brandon acted for 10 years from the age of 30 to 40, and finally couldn't hold it after performing "The Mummy 3" in 2008.
(Insert a sentence, Brandon Fisher in "The Mummy 3" also happened to cooperate with this Oscar actress Michelle Yeoh)
Lying down is Brandon
For the next 7 years, his most frequent appearance was not on the set, but in the hospital.
During a hurricane in 2012, he was hit in the back by a tree in his yard.
In the past 7 years, he has constantly used surgery to repair his body: knee joint, laminectomy... Even the Adam's apple has been knifed, so the sound sounds different.
Brandon, who has difficulty even walking in most cases, has fewer and fewer tablets.
Before receiving "Whale", he played a small role in the American drama "Trust" and played a mecha man who had almost no chance of showing his face in "Doom Patrol".
In addition to fame and fortune and health, he also lost his marriage in the past decade.
He and his wife Avton Smith met when they entered the circle, fell in love and married during the fire, and had three children.
In 2007, his wife suddenly filed for divorce, and the 15-year marriage ended.
After the division of property, Brandon had to pay $900,000 a year in alimony to his ex-wife, divorced, career declined, and illness, Brandon fell into a quagmire.
By 2013, Brandon, whose job had plummeted, could not pay $900,000 a year in alimony and went to court with his ex-wife, who at the time asked to be reduced to $600,000, but his ex-wife thought he was hiding his property, and the two sides had a stalemate. The court ultimately upheld Brandon's claim, and the 10-year alimony was finally paid in 2018.
Marriage, health, and career declined across the board.
Just when everyone thought he couldn't be worse, in 2018 Brandon said a secret knot that had been hidden for 15 years.
At the 2003 Golden Globe luncheon, he was sexually harassed by Philip Burke, former president of the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood (Golden Globe organizer).
His left hand reached around my ass and grabbed my ass flesh, one of his fingers touched my XX, he started moving it, I felt uncomfortable, I felt like a little child, I felt a ball in my throat blocked, I thought I was going to cry.
I was panicked and scared, trying my best to get out, but I felt so sick, like a child who had done something wrong, and almost cried.
It's like someone poured a pot of colorless paint on me.
After that incident, I started depressed and felt that I deserved it.
I blamed myself and felt it was all my fault.
After that summer, this feeling never stopped, and I began to want to be a hermit. The silence of the association is even more uncomfortable.
——From an interview with GQ magazine
He hurriedly left the banquet and asked the agent to write an email asking the other party to apologize in private, but the other party always refused.
After it broke out in 2018, the other party issued a fluttering statement.
Brandon has since feuded with the Golden Globes. He almost no longer attends the Golden Globes, and was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes last year for "Whale", which he also refused to attend.
03
Brandon, the feeling of giving Uncle Meat, is a bit like Xiaoming of internal entertainment.
Be kind and sincere.
When it is most prestigious, it is willing to promote juniors.
The role of Dwayne Johnson in "The Mummy Returns", he took the initiative to help fight, when the latter had just changed careers and was not famous. If it weren't for Dwayne Johnson's initiative, no one would know.
Leonardo, who is a few years younger than Brandon, was screened internally for the 1993 movie "A Different Sky", and Brandon was also on the scene, and after watching it, he loudly expressed his liking for this little brother's performance.
Xiao Lizi said that at that time, the audience did not treat him as a child, only Brandon was alone.
Recently, the "Variety" actor talked, he and Adam Sandler, who collaborated on "Rock 'n' Roll" in 1994, talked about interesting facts about the year, and even remembered the names of the actors who made guest appearances that year.
YouTube has a video of Brandon telling his story of classic movie shooting since filming.
Talking about "Tarzan of the Forest", he talked about how powerful the actors in animal costumes and orangutans and other animals in the film are, he remembered their names, and even he remembered what the elephants were called.
Talking about "Whale", he did not mention how much homework he did and what skills he used, but praised the makeup artist and special effects artist who helped him achieve the image of a 600-pound male protagonist, and talked about how good the director was and how good the opponent actor was.
The prosthesis in "Whale" takes four hours a day to makeup...
There was a message from netizens under that video: It was obviously Brandon's own interview, and he was praising others the whole time.
Of course, the cruel thing is that without this success, Hollywood would not have noticed such a poor honest man.
On the stage of the union award, he took the trophy, and after a few words of ridicule, seriously expressed his gratitude.
Finally, Xiang Gong choked up and said such a thing.
Trust me, if you stay here (show business), move one foot in front of the other, take a step, and you'll get where you need to go, be brave.
This time the Oscar actor, in the acceptance speech, he also said, if not for coming out, I can't be grateful for that time.
Thanks to it, he met "Whale".
04
In January 2020, Darren Aronofsky called Brandon and talked to him about the movie "Whale" he was preparing.
Adapted from a drama, the male protagonist is a bachelor who lives alone, has a marriage, has a daughter who is still in the second year of high school, and has been missing for 8 years.
He never goes out, almost most of his activities are on the sofa, he makes a living by teaching online to write, of course, just sound, he never appears.
Because his body weighs 272 kilograms (special effects makeup), he is so fat that he can't even stand on his own, so fat that his physical condition is getting worse and worse, and he has symptoms of heart failure, and the original words of the nurse are that he may hang up at any time.
Of course, without a lover, Brandon has little life, he is like Herman's whale that dives into the depths of the sea, huge and silent.
But this silence can always be easily stirred up.
Sometimes, it's the little finches by the window who are willing to come here to feed.
This little bit of light made him feel as if I still had a little use.
So, he thought of his daughter.
He wants to do what he feels right in his limited time and make a final explanation to his concerned daughter.
The whale had no emotion and did not know that Ahab wanted to kill it, it was just a poor behemoth. I also felt sorry for Ahab because he felt that if he killed the whale, his life would improve.
But the reality is cruel, and all this does not help...
I know that the author just wants to save us from his own tragic story for a moment of redemption.
This book made me think about my life, and then it made me feel fortunate for what I had.
As soon as Darren Aronofsky finished telling the story, Brandon was sure that he absolutely wanted to act.
In addition to trusting the director (his 2008 film "The Wrestling King" brought Mickey Rock back into the mainstream), the reason why he is so sure is that behind the role of Charlie, he sees the desperate situation he once found himself in: an unspeakable cry, a self-destruction that cannot be saved.
After a 7-month hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic, Brandon became Charlie.
Obviously gentle and kind, but because of his huge body and sexual orientation, he is not understood and is regarded as an outlier.
Even in his online part-time writing classes, he never showed his face.
But just look into his eyes and you won't doubt his reality.
I just want one thing done right in my life
Movies have mixed reviews, but Brandon's performance always moves you.
"Variety" magazine: "Brandon's interpretation is more worthy of being seen than the movie itself".
"The male protagonist really plays too much, and his eyes and the state of saying sorry all the time really make me feel like I smell the corruption of a dying person. The group drama of all the indoor scenes is indeed very much the shadow of the stage play, but each character is quite material. In the final confrontation with my daughter, I couldn't watch what my daughter was doing, and I could cry faint just by watching his every movement. (It's funny to wipe your tears while catching a boat)"
At the 2022 Venice Film Festival, Brandon, who has not been a "star" for a long time, wore the suit he bought temporarily and watched "Whale" with everyone.
The movie ended with thunderous applause.
Everyone stood up one by one and thanked the audience.
Finally, the director greets Brandon.
He tidied up his suit that didn't need to be tidied up at all and didn't fit well, stood up to respond to the audience's applause, and bowed with tears in his eyes.
That's the opening scene.
Before today, can "Whale" send Brandon to the Oscar for actor? Maybe netizens and fans are more nervous than himself.
The movie "Killer of the Flower Moon" that he will release this year, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo and Robert De Niro. He is very happy to appear in this work that is a "big movie" by any standard, how many scenes? He doesn't care.
With or without this actor, I am happy for Brandon.
There is no need to praise pain for honor, but I always praise those who can come out of it.
Coincidentally, on the way to the company in the morning, Uncle Rou just turned out an old draft of "People" that wrote about Huang Yongyu, and the old man had a sentence in it, which was particularly suitable for concluding today's article.
To Brandon, but also to you and me who can't avoid suffering.
I can endure the kind of grievances that you can't imagine, that kind of pain, I can endure.
Not one thing, how many of them.
I don't tell others about this, it's something I'm proud of.
Those problems between people and people are a little wronged, they suffer, they are very bitter. I felt a little bad that day, and the next day I did something else and didn't think much about it.
It's really hard to think that it is of no use at all, but in this life, this kind of suffering cannot be compared with my efforts and my hard work.
……
Life is suffering, but people are greater than suffering.
——Li Feiran|Character: "Huang Yongyu: As long as people laugh, they don't lose"