Brendan Fraser has become the talk of Hollywood recently thanks to his starring turn in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Some are already talking about an Oscar nomination for the performance. Fraser is just the latest big name to be involved in one of the director’s films, and the director captured a beautiful moment between Fraser and another Aronofsky alum, Hugh Jackman, and Jackman loves it too.
Darren Aronofsky posted the picture to Instagram that shows Hugh Jackman and Brendan Fraser together backstage during the recent Toronto International Film Festival. Jackman has a big smile on his face, while Fraser actually looks completely shocked by something. This may have been just before, or just after, Fraser received the TIFF Tribute Award, which would explain the shock, video of the event shows Fraser completely speechless. Hugh Jackman reposted the image himself, with a simple heart added to the pic to show how happy he was at Aronofsky’s kind words.
Darren Aronofsky called Fraser and Jackman “two of the greatest thespians and humans I know” which is about the greatest compliment one can possibly expect. Jackman, who previously starred in Aronofsky’s The Fountain, certainly appreciated the sentiment based on his response. Brendan Fraser has been dealing with an onslaught of praise for his performance in The Whale and is clearly taken aback by the positive reception he has been getting from both his peers and fans alike.
One assumes that based on this picture, Hugh Jackman is one of the fans of Brendan Fraser that is happy to see his renewed success. It’s been nearly 20 years since the height of Fraser’s fame in the Mummy franchise. While he has continued to find work, he was involved in much smaller projects for a number of years. Fraser says that was in part due to be blacklisted after suffering sexual harassment from a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Brendan Fraser returned to the small screen with DC’s Doom Patrol where he received a lot of praise. He was also set to be in the HBO Max Batgirl movie, before that film was canceled mid-production. It will likely never see the light of day. Still, The Whale seems to solidify Fraser’s comeback.
It will be interesting to see what comes next for Brendan Fraser, whether or not there is a gold statue in his future, he has clearly made waves in Hollywood that have been noticed, that will almost certainly lead to more opportunities for him going forward. Maybe there’s an an opportunity for Brendan Fraser and Hugh Jackman to co-star in a future Darren Aronofsky movie. He clearly loves them and loves working with them.
