Brendan Fraser Seemed Thoroughly Shocked To Win A SAG Award And Shared Speech-Giving Advice From Ian McKellen

Brendan Fraser was not impacted by SNL spoofing The Whale, and in fact, he’s still collecting awards for his performance as a morbidly obese gay father attempting to fight his way back to, well, everything. It’s a movie that (as our own Vince Mancini wrote) is a rare case where art-house stunting truly works, and Fraser was informed early on — and grew emotional as a result — that people are rooting for him during this “comeback.” He’s remained tearfully grateful, and that trend continued at the SAG Awards.

The George of the Jungle star beat Adam Sandler, Austin Butler, and Colin Farrell to win Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role, and he took the mic with his speech-plan, courtesy of a Gods and Monsters co-star: “Ian McKellen told me to be good, be brief, and be seated.”

From there, though, the tears start to roll again, and Brendan did mention that he finally felt like he belonged to a tribe when gaining his SAG-AFTRA card during the early 1990s. And here’s Fraser’s still-shocked reaction to have made a Hollywood “comeback”:

“I never would have believed I would have been offered the role of my life in this character, Charlie in The Whale, he’s someone who is on a raft of regrets but he’s in a sea of hope. I’ve been at that sea, and I’ve rode that wave lately and it’s been powerful and good and I’ve also had that wave smash me right down to the ocean floor and drag my face along there and wind up on some strange beach in a different world, wondering ‘where am I now?’”

Watch the full speech below and maybe look forward to more at the Oscars. Fraser will also be seen in Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)