Aurora Starchild
Brendan Fraser is possibly the most celebrated actor right now. In the midst of his Brennaisance, the 54-year-old seems to finally be getting the recognition he deserves. His star role as a 600-pound man in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale has already garnered him 63 prestigious award nominations and 25 wins. And he also has a pending Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Here are four more movies that Brendan Fraser has been nominated for prior to his show-stopping career comeback in The Whale.
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Gods and Monsters Won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay
This 1998 film (not the 2015 Justice League sequel) is a partly fictionalized drama about the late film director James Whale. Whale was made famous for his 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein. Gods and Monsters juxtaposes James Whale’s homosexuality, which was a cause of torment for him due to its stigma in the 50s (when the film takes place), with his own film’s “monsters.” Ian McKellen played Whale and Brendan Fraser played the role of Clayton Boone, Whale’s gardener.
Born in 1889, James Whale is in his 60s at the time of the film’s setting. He has suffered from strokes and, due to PTSD from serving in World War I, as well as his struggle to hide his sexuality, feels suicidal. He has a live-in maid and, upon befriending Boone, begins to sketch portraits of him. But when Boone discovers that Whale is gay, he becomes uneasy. The coup de grâce comes after Whale tries to sexually assault Boone. He then begs Boone to kill him, and when he refuses, he later commits suicide.
Gods and Monsters lost money at the box office but was still critically applauded as brilliant. It was nominated for three Oscars and won one of them. Ian McKellen was in the running for Best Actor. Lynn Redgrave, who played Whale’s housemaid, Hanna, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Ultimately, the movie won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1999.
The Mummy Was Nominated for Its Sound
The Mummy came out in 1999 and became one of Brendan Fraser’s most loved movies. The Stephen Sommers-directed film was actually a remake of a 1932 version. It was one of the year’s most successful films in the United States and made a whopping $416.4 million at the worldwide box office. Its striking success led to several sequels, all starring Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell.
While The Mummy featured a good cast (Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah), as well as exciting visuals, its Oscar nomination was actually for the sound. Four sound engineers were collectively nominated in 2000: Leslie Shatz, Chris Carpenter, Rick Kline, and Chris Munro. However, they didn’t win.
The Quiet American Was Nominated for 1 Oscar
The Quiet American was a 2002 film adaptation of author Graham Greene’s 1955 novel of the same name. An earlier film adaptation was released in 1958 but, due to the Red Scare, focused on an entirely new plot: anti-communism. The 2002 version attempted to stick to Greene’s original intentions: a political drama about America’s culpability in the Vietnam War.
Brendan Fraser played Alden Pyle, an aid worker who steals British journalist Thomas Fowler’s Vietnamese mistress. He starred alongside Michael Caine (Fowler) and Do Thi Hai Yen (mistress Phuong). Unfortunately, The Quiet American didn’t do well at the box office, which may have been because of its perceived “anti-American” message and timing after the 9/11 attacks. However, it was still the recipient of an Academy Award nomination. Michael Caine was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but he did not win.
Crash Won 3 Oscars, Nominated for 6
Crash was a 2004 crime drama (different than the 1996 psychological drama of the same name). Paul Haggis co-wrote, produced, and directed the film, which was based off his own experiences of being carjacked. Crash focuses on racial and social tensions in Los Angeles in 199. 1991 was the same year that Rodney King was brutally beaten by LA police officers — one of the catalyzing events that led to the 1992 LA Riots.
Brendan Fraser played LA District Attorney Rick Cabot, who gets carjacked by two black men just prior to an election. There are overlapping plots involving homicides, racial tensions among black people, Latinos, and Asian people, gang activity, and politics. While the film did very well at the box office, it was also criticized as a bit shallow in its portrayal of racial tensions and the reality that LA residents were living through at the time.
Crash featured a stellar cast: Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Thandiwe Newton, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Esposito, Matt Dillon, Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges, William Fichtner, Terrence Howard, Ryan Phillippe, and Larenz Tate.
Crash Has Been Criticized for Its Oscar Wins
The movie was nominated for 6 Oscars in 2006:
- Best Picture
- Best Director
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Matt Dillon)
- Best Film Editing
- Best Original Song (“In the Deep” by Michael Becker and Kathleen York).
Half of those nominations led to wins. Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco were honored with the award for Best Original Screenplay, Hughes Winborne won the award for Best Film Editing, and the movie won Best Picture.
However, in a post-George Floyd world where people of color have had a chance to speak out about ongoing white hegemony and racism, Crash continues to be questioned on its merits regarding an Oscar win for Best Picture.
