Category: News

It’s Women’s History Month, and inarguably, Beyoncé has made plenty of history over the course of her career. Most recently, she became the most-awarded artist in Grammys history, and her list of accomplishments is long and worth celebrating.

That’s precisely what California congressman Robert Garcia did Wednesday, taking the House Of Representatives floor to give an impassioned speech praising the super for her contributions to women’s history (and Black history, since February was also Black History Month).

You can check out a video of Garcia’s speech, courtesy of People, below, along with a transcript.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women’s History Month by honoring an individual who represents both so well. She’s an icon, a legend, and she is now and forever the moment. I want to celebrate none other than who I believe is the queen of pop and R&B: Beyoncé Knowles Carter.

Now a few weeks ago, this brown-skinned girl out of H-town won her 32nd Grammy, giving her the most Grammy wins of all time. But Beyoncé is so much more than a performer and a singer. She’s a creator and an artist. Beyoncé’s also a role model for millions across the country. She’s stood up for voting rights, for feminism, for women and girls, for my community — the LGBTQ+ community. For my generation and others, she simply is the greatest of all time. Her story is history.

Garcia was elected to the House Of Representatives after serving as the mayor of Long Beach, California from 2014 to 2022. A Peruvian immigrant who moved to the US when he was young, Garcia is the first queer immigrant to serve in Congress.

The Walking Dead franchise will return this spring. This will happen on Mother’s Day with the final season of Fear The Walking Dead‘s premiere, and then the rolling releases of three spinoffs will go down over the next year or so. Actually, Rick Grimes/Michonne’s standalone show only recently began filming, so we’ll see it sometime in 2024. Before that happens, Daryl Dixon will mysteriously wash ashore in France, but first, Negan and Maggie will head into Manhattan for The Walking Dead: Dead City.

This is a bad idea, obviously. Not the show but the idea that heading into one of the world’s most populated cities can work out well. Yet the show’s synopsis reveals that they’re on a “dangerous mission,” which people seem to believe is to rescue Maggie and the late Glenn’s son, Hershel, who may have been kidnapped. The irony here, of course, is that Glenn is the one who rescued Rick Grimes when he was dumb enough to wander into a city, and his son is now potentially recreating this peril.

Yet for the moment, it’s enough to witness this new BTS footage released by AMC and tweeted by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

As Morgan also writes, we can expect this spinoff to debut in June. We’ll see six episodes with possible followup seasons, and I do hope that Maggie gives Negan a lot of hell. Redemption arc or not, he deserves to keep suffering for what he’s done. Not only to Glenn and Abraham but to most of the humans on The Walking Dead. At least Judith let him know who’s boss, though.

As the above footage reveals, the concrete jungle environment will very much be a character in this spinoff. The leafy greens of the country have been replaced by colder, harsher surroundings in a city that’s apparently still inhabited by millions of non-Walkers. Should be strange! Further, showrunner Eli Jorne has boldly promised to deliver “one of the most awesome, disgusting, terrifying walkers that I’ve seen in the history of the show.” Get ready for people to puke, but then again, viewers of this franchise have likely acquired tough stomachs.

The Walking Dead: Dead City arrives in June on AMC.

Showtime’s Yellowjackets is back the same night as Succession (and the same weekend as John Wick: Chapter 4). We know one show is ending after season four (miss you already, literally everyone on Succession but especially Greg), but the other is only entering season two. There’s plenty of Yellowjackets story left to tell — although not too much.

“The original plan was about five seasons, and we feel like we’re still on track for that,” co-creator Ashley Lyle told Entertainment Weekly. “We don’t really see this as being more than a five-season show.”

There are some shows that might never end, like The Simpsons, Law & Order: SVU, and apparently Dexter, but Lyle thinks “that when you’re telling such a deeply serialized story and it’s about these characters’ lives, you want to reach a satisfying conclusion and not just drag things out forever.” She added:

“This isn’t really one of those setup shows where it can go anywhere. So far, we’ve been really on track. Season two is largely what we always planned, but you do make a lot of discoveries along the way and so it’s always a little bit surprising.”

Spoiler: the real treasure was the cannibals we met along the way. I saved you four more seasons, Yellowjackets (jk, it’s a good show and you should watch it).

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

(SPOILERS for this week’s Bel-Air episode will be found below.)

Bel-Air didn’t get off to the most peaceful start for season two. It began with Will living at Jazz’s apartment after he had a fallout with Phil, Vivian, and his mother over the truth of his estranged father. Fortunately, Phil and Will were able to patch things up in the season two premiere and Will even returned home to the Banks’ Bel-Air mansion, but not before partying with family and friends for Ashley’s 13th birthday. In episode two of this season, the focus shifts to Will, Carlton, Hilary, and Jazz’s individual and interconnected lives where they all seek to make some type of progress toward their goals. Will has his eyes set on a getting a division one college basketball project while Carlton looks to make an impact in the Black Student Union and take a step forward in his battle with anxiety. Hilary and Jazz made things official in the season two premiere, but they aren’t exactly on the same page — something they hope to fix this week.

The aforementioned events in the second episode of Bel-Air season two, titled “Speaking Truth,” are soundtracked by songs that help to accentuate the emotions behind each scene. You can find a list of them belong as well as details about the scenes that the records soundtracked.

Check out our Bel-Air season 2, episode 1 recap here.

KAMI & Smoko Ono — “Superstar Moves”

KAMI & Smoko Ono’s track can be heard at the 01:15 mark during a Bel-Air Academy basketball game. Tensions are high as Will and his coach are not on the same page. Will wants to carry the team to a win while his coach wants it to be more of a team effort.

Easy McCoy — “Deja Vu”

At around the 06:40 mark, Easy McCoy’s “Deja Vu” briefly plays as the Bel-Air title flashes on the screen. This record is the theme song for Bel-Air.

Last Verse — “Semper”

Last Verse’s “Semper” checks in around 06:54 mark as Will and Carlton arrive at school. Will is venting to Carlton about his basketball frustrations. Carlton’s crush Yazmin arrives shortly after and asks him about attending and contributing ideas at the next Black Student Union meeting.

Tupac — “Can U Get Away”

Tupac’s track from his 1995 album Me Against the World plays around 09:05 as Jazz is tyding up at the record store. Hilary walks in as he’s dancing and rapping, but he doesn’t notice right away. She surprises him with lunch, but her agenda comes alive as she asks to use his Impala his for a video shoot with Ivy. He initially says no, but after some convincing, he changes his mind.

Jade Amar — “My Own Boss”

Jade Amar’s “My Own Boss” can be heard at the 16:04 mark as Hilary, Ivy, and friends are filming the video shoot with Jazz’s car. Contrary to Jazz’s wishes, Hilary reluctantly lets Ivy drive the car. Unfortunately for Hilary, Jazz finds out about this as he makes a surprise visit to the set.

YG — “Scared Money” Feat. J. Cole & Moneybagg Yo

YG’s “Scared Money” checks in in around 26:19 as Will and Carlton sneak out with Jazz to go to a party in South Central. Will meets with Jackie, where he also finds Doc, while Carlton lets his wild side out with a couple ladies in the club.

Inka Delli — “Bank”

Inka Delli’s record can be heard around the 28:42 mark as Carlton finds himself dancing, and rather happy, with a couple of ladies in the club. Will also gets his groove on with Jackie.

Iain Harper — “Look Alive”

Iain Harper’s “Look Alive” plays in the background during a conversation at the club between Doc and Will. Doc questions Will about his sudden appearance in Bel-Air before telling Will that the Bel-Air basketball team is hurting his potential. Doc also introduces the idea of joining an AAU team to improve his stock, something that piques Will’s interest.

Julian Roy — “Trouble”

Julian Roy’s “Trouble” checks in around the 34:15 mark as Jazz is back working at the record shop. While there, he receives a text from Hilary asking for them to meet up for a conversation about their relationship. It leads to Hilary deciding to introduce him as her boyfriend to her parents.

Coast Contra — “Legacy”

Coast Contra’s record plays around the 37:10 mark as Carlton suggests that the Black Student Union hold a protest, a walk-out specifically, in defense of Mrs. Hughes unjust firing. The idea is fully supported by the BSU.

Chel Strong — “I Know You See It”

Chel Strong’s “I Know You See It” plays around the 40:59 mark during the latest Bel-Air basketball game. Will is on a whole new level during the game as his arrogance and cockiness is at an all time high. However, once again, Will and his coach clash during a timeout.

Armani White — “Billie Eilish”

At around the 42:38 mark, Armani White’s viral hit “Billie Eilish” plays as Will goes on an absolute tear, one that is also selfish and against his team’s wishes, to end the basketball game. Will’s team wins the game, but it appears that Will may lose his team.

You can stream this week’s episode of Bel-Air on Peacock here.

New episodes of ‘Bel-Air’ are available Peacock on Thursdays at 5:01 am EST/ 2:01 am PST.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Liquid Death, the maker of every podcaster’s favorite canned water, is coming for Arizona Iced Tea’s crown! The brand (which makes water, sparkling water, and flavored sparkling water) has just launched a new line of low-sugar low-calorie iced teas in their signature tallboy style cans, giving us three puny-named flavors including Grim Leader, Armless Palmer, and Rest In Peach.

What’s next? Liquid Death Soda?! No really, we’re asking. We’re totally on board if the brand wants to do that. Coke needs some comp.

The new line will be sold as both single cans or 8-pack cases like the rest of the Liquid Death product family and are priced at $2.69 for a single can or $16.99 for the case. Like the Liquid Death flavored sparkling water, these drinks are all sweetened but… just barely. Each can clocks in at 30 calories with just 6 grams of sugar from agave nectar. If you’re hoping for a kick out of this drink, keep hoping, because it’s not an energy drink it’s a lot more in line with a can of Coca-Cola (with a significantly healthier amount of sugar). Each can provides just 30mg of caffeine, as well as vitamins b6 and b12, which will give you a slight head change but won’t get you wired like a Red Bull or a cold brew coffee (which hover in the 100-200mg range).

That hasn’t stopped Liquid Death from launching an ad campaign that combines Monty Python’s famous “Hell’s Grannies” sketch and Jackass stunts, merging the two ideas with a truly frightening commercial that shows grannies playing brutal death metal, grinding on rails, and shooting rockets out of their asses. No, they’re not actual grannies, and that makes the whole thing way more f*cking frightening. I haven’t been this legitimately scared of a commercial since Paul Giamatti voiced that weird Burger King commercial that was simply dubbed “Nightmare.”

Disturbing-ad-that-I’ll-never-be-able-to-purge-from-my-memory aside, is the new tea any good? And which is the best? We set out to find out by trying all three. Let’s dive in.

Liquid Death Iced Tea

If you’re a fan of Liquid Death you probably know the brand has never met a pun it doesn’t love and that unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your sense of humor) extends into the tea line. Since all but one of the names gives a clear indication of what the actual flavor is, let me break each down for you. There is ‘Armless Palmer,’ which as you might’ve guessed is based on an Arnold Palmer (one part tea, one part lemonade), the most cryptic, Grim Leafer, which is based on an Earl Grey style black tea, and Rest In Peach, which features a mix of black tea and peach flavor.

I’ll talk about them in the order I drank them, which was coincidently in alphabetical order, starting with the Armless Palmer.

Liquid Death’s version of the Arnold Palmer is very mild, it has a great balance between the earthy flavors of black tea with a subtle lemon top note. If you’ve ever had an Arnold Palmer made with sweet tea, this is far from that. It’s just sweet enough to not be bitter, but not so overly sweet that you can feel it eating away at your teeth.

There is no actual lemonade in this mix, it’s black tea and lemon juice concentrate so it doesn’t have that intense sweetness you’d expect from lemonade. In a way, it’s not an Arnold Palmer at all, just a citrusy black tea. Even though the name feels a bit like a false promise, I still think it tastes pretty damn good.

Next, I had the Grim Leafer.

As a person who loves tea, Earl Grey is a flavor profile I’m very familiar with. While I don’t think the Grim Leafer delivers the same complexity as your typical Earl Grey tea there is a lot of great flavor found here. On the palate, you’ll get a nice earthy and slightly malty base with a bergamot orange top note and a soft and delicate mouthfeel.

The flavor combination is so good that I think Liquid Death could’ve gotten away with skipping the agave nectar to sweeten it — there is a natural edge to this flavor that sets it apart from the other two.

Which brings us to Rest In Peach.

This is by far the most fragrant of the flavors with a strong artificial peach smell on the nose. I’m a big fan of peach-sweetened teas but I have to say that of all the three, this was the biggest disappointment for me. It’s not that the flavor is bad — it’s not, but it just doesn’t taste anything like tea to me.

The peach flavoring (which also has characteristics of apricot and pear) completely overpowers the tea resulting in a flavor that tastes almost entirely like peach with just a hint of something. I say something because if I had tried this drink blindfolded I’d never guessed that tea was lurking in there. I want to say it tastes like “dirty peach water,” because that seems mean, but that is kind of what it tastes like.

Let me say that I don’t think Rest In Peach tastes bad, if you like peach iced tea you might still like this a lot but it’s easily my least favorite and that’s because I think the tea takes a backseat to the peach.

The Bottom Line:

Liquid Death’s iced tea line is great, and I prefer both the Grim Leafer and the Armless Palmer to Arizona Iced Tea’s over-sweetened canned teas. But I think my biggest disappointment in this line is that Liquid Death didn’t attempt a green tea. Maybe they felt like they couldn’t compete with Arizona’s famous Green Tea with Honey, but I would’ve at least liked to see them try.

Here is my ranking for each flavor:

3. Rest In Peach: Too heavy on the peach, not enough tea. Overly fragrant and distracting. Not as good as Arizona’s Iced Peach Tea.
2. Armless Palmer: A delicious balance of lemon flavors and black tea. Delicate and not sickly sweet. Less sweet and more subtle than Arizona’s Lemon Tea/Arnold Palmer.
1. Grim Leafer: By far the best canned or bottled black tea drink on the market. Malty and complex. No equivalent from Arizona.

Pick up Liquid Death Iced tea at Amazon.

Season three of The Mandalorian debuted this week and there have been a couple of dust-ups, and both have to do with Grogu’s time with Luke Skywalker. The first, and less interesting, is the fact that Grogu’s time with Luke Skywalker came to an end not during an episode of The Mandalorian but, instead, during The Book of Boba Fett. I concede it’s a little weird,* but this does seem like an overreaction. First of all, if you pay attention to Star Wars at all the word was out that The Book of Boba Fett turned into a mini-season of The Mandalorian. Also, to those honestly caught off guard by this, well if I just learned two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett were full-on episodes of The Mandalorian, I’d be happy to learn there are more episodes of my favorite show. It’s like someone right now telling me that two episodes of Home Improvement are just episodes of Seinfeld. I would not be mad about this. I’d be ecstatic.

Again, the way this was handled was certainly unusual. I compared it to if, during an episode of Frasier, Sam Malone showed up. Now, this did happen on an episode of Fraiser, but it would be like if there were two full episodes of Sam Malone tending bar back in Boston before he boarded his flight to Seattle. I mentioned this analogy to a friend and he corrected me, saying it would be more like if Cheers were still on when Frasier was on and during an episode of Fraiser, Frasier Crane murdered someone. Then, in an episode of Cheers, Fraiser is acquitted. Then back on Fraiser, Fraiser is back to life as normal with no mention of the trial. Anyway, my point is here, this all seems like a missed opportunity for the good folks at both Cheers and Fraiser and I hope this plot point is used in the new reboot.

The other topic of note, which I find much more interesting, is Jon Favreau kind of nonchalantly mentioning Grogu spent a couple of years training with Luke Skywalker. People kind of freaked out about this because, in the nature of these shows, it all seems pretty compact, time-wise. If two whole years had passed, what was our pal the Mandalorian doing with himself? What was anyone doing? Honestly, I don’t think Favreau put much thought into it in the first place because time in Star Wars doesn’t really matter and is impossible to figure out. He later had to correct himself and lower that amount of time a bit, but he was probably surprised anyone cared in the first place because people who grew up on the Original Trilogy have been kind of ignoring this for year and years. (Actual years and years, not Star Wars years and years.)

Let’s use The Empire Strikes Back as an example. How long was Luke on Dagobah training with Yoda? It seems like a couple of days? Maybe three or four? But Luke sure improves quite a bit over the time he’s there. At least enough to survive an encounter with Darth Vader. Okay, sure, Vader wasn’t trying to kill Luke, but Luke got a couple of legitimate shots in and a moment where Vader admits Luke’s skills are “impressive.” This seems like more than a couple of days of training?

Making this more confusing is the case of Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO on the Millennium Falcon. Having somewhat successfully evaded Imperial capture (but not evaded the aforementioned Boba Fett) Han looks for places he can get his ship repaired and comes upon Cloud City, high above the gas planet of Bespin, run by his, let’s say, sometimes associate Lando. Now, how long does this take for the Falcon to get to Bespin without a hyperdrive engine? Han says it’s pretty far, but thinks they can make it. Using actual math and science, someone calculated this and found it would be over a billion years. Yeah, Luke should be really good by that point.

Since this is a fool’s errand to begin with, a popular number is maybe a month or two. But in the context of the movie, which is very tight from scene to scene, it’s jarring to think those four were just cruising along in the Falcon for a couple of months. Or even a couple of weeks. In the flow of the movie, it seems like they get there in a few hours, which even in Star Wars fiction is kind of impossible without hyperdrive.

But here’s my main point: I am not trying to figure this out in any way. Yes, I will spend months trying to figure out Luke Skywalker’s plan to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi because these are actual plot points that, still to this day, do not make sense. (Since that piece ran, even now, once every few weeks someone will tweet at me, “I have this figured out.” Every time, they certainly do not have it figured out.) But I’ve given up on trying to figure out how time works in Star Wars. It does not matter. Only 19 years had passed between Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars and people were already like, “Yeah I don’t buy this whole Jedi thing.” It would be like now trying to say The Killers’ Hot Fuss never existed. (Though, we’ve seen what government conspiracies can do to formally rational people so maybe, now, having lived through 2016 – 2020, I give this one more of a pass.)

Did Grogu spend two full years training with Luke? Did Han Solo spend over a billion years trying to get from Hoth to Bespin? It doesn’t matter. Don’t try to figure out how time works in Star Wars. The answer is it doesn’t work. And you can drive yourself crazy trying to make sense of it.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Amazon wants to take a stab at creating its own Yellowstone, and the streaming platform has reportedly turned to True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto to get the job done. The untitled project has a series commitment and is being “fast-tracked,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, which obtained a tentative synopsis of Amazon’s attempt to capitalize on the Western genre:

It revolves around a former outlaw who must reckon with a threat from his past in order to keep the life and family he has worked so hard to build. He sets out on an epic journey that unites a formidable gang of indelible figures to face an even greater danger, in an epic saga of adventure and romance that forces this former criminal to become the hero he’s been pretending to be.

The Western project came together after Pizzolatto exited his first-look deal with Disney/FX, which would’ve re-teamed the writer with Matthew McConaughey for a series called The Redeemer. However, the show never came to be when McConaughey walked, making Pizzolatto a free agent again.

As for Pizzolatto’s involvement with True Detective, which will soon drop a fourth season, he’s credited on the show as an executive producer “though he is not creatively involved at all,” according to THR. HBO owns the rights to the franchise, which is now being run by Barry Jenkins. In short, Pizzolatto has a lot of time to mount a challenge to Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone empire that’s in wobbly shape thanks to rumors that Kevin Costner could be exiting the flagship series over a scheduling dispute.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Ashnikko was confirmed as one of many 2023 Coachella acts in January. There’s a lot more where that came from. Yesterday, March 1, Ashnikko announced her Weedkiller album and subsequent Weedkiller World Tour are on the way. The news was boosted today by the release of “Worms. ”

Starkly contrasting the uptempo beat she’s singing atop — and the promising months ahead of her — Ashnikko paints a very bleak, blunt picture with visceral lyricism: “The world is burning, I got worms in my brains / Gonna bleach my eyebrows, change my name / The world is burning, and I laugh at the blaze / Gonna bleach my eyebrows, change my name / Play my life like a video game / I don’t mind, I’m driving through flames.”

“Worms” arrives nearly a month after the aggressive nu-metal track “You Make Me Sick!” as the second single from Weedkiller, due out June 2.

“My bioluminescent heart is glowing,” Ashnikko said in a statement. “My post-apocalyptic fae world is here for you to journey into. My wings have been ripped out, but I’ve built them anew using Weedkiller machine parts. I am the one sent here to eliminate you, Weedkiller.”

Below, find the Weedkiller album art and tracklist, as well as Ashnikko’s upcoming US Weedkiller World Tour dates.

1. “World Eater”
2. “You Make Me Sick!”
3. “Worms”
4. “Super Soaker” Feat. Daniela Lalita
5. “Don’t Look At It”
6. “Cheerleader”
7. “Moonlight Magic”
8. “Miss Nectarine”
9. “Chokehold Cherry Python”
10. “Weedkiller”
11. “Want It All”
12. “Possession Of A Weapon”
13. “Dying Star” Feat. Ethel Cain

09/15 — Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore Minneapolis
09/16 — Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/18 — Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live!
09/19 — Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
09/21 — Toronto, ON – Rebel
09/22 — Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
09/23 — Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater & Ballroom
09/25 — Boston, MA – Roadrunner
09/26 — New York, NY – Brooklyn Mirage
09/28 — Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at The Mann
09/29 — Washington, DC – The Anthem
09/30 — Richmond, VA – The National
10/02 — Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
10/03 — Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte
10/05 — St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live
10/06 — Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live at the Backyard
10/07 — Orlando, FL – House of Blues Orlando
10/10 — Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
10/11 — Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works
10/13 — St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
10/14 — Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
10/16 — Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
10/17 — Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex Rockwell
10/19 — Vancouver, BC – PNE Forum
10/20 — Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
10/21 — Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
10/24 — Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
10/27 — Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren

Weedkiller is out 6/2 via Warner Records. Find more information here.

Ashnikko is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Miley Cyrus didn’t hold back on her No. 1 hit “Flowers,” an empowering anthem released on her ex’s birthday with quite hinting lyrics. She’s also given fans plenty of cryptic messages to work with, including a mysterious countdown and posters. Now there’s more.

Disney+ tweeted a lyric from “Flowers” today: “I can buy myself flowers.” With only those few words, the post went viral, sparking confused and excited reactions from fans.

Many users are summoning Hannah Montana, especially with hilarious GIFs, speculating about a reboot for the show. Though that’s quite unlikely, could you blame them for thinking it’s possible?

https://twitter.com/jorgeBluBlu555/status/163135618593157121

Endless Summer Vacation is her eighth studio album, the follow-up to 2020’s Plastic Hearts. She described Endless Summer Vacation as “her love letter to LA” and it was recorded in that very city. It was produced alongside Kid Harpoon, Greg Kurstin, Mike Will Made-It, and Tyler Johnson, and it features Brandi Carlile and Sia.

Last month, the singer mailed out postcards to fans to tease the album even more: “I’m driving around town in a beat-up old Mercedes. You think I’m crazy; you might be right,” they read, which most assumed were lyrics.

Endless Summer Vacation is out 3/10 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Before starring in The Whale, it had been quite some time since Brendan Fraser had been a leading man in Hollywood. We all remember his rise to fame, which was boosted by his role in Encino Man and as the titular George in George of the Jungle, but in the mid-2000s, Fraser was a lot more selective about his roles before taking a few years off from acting. Though he was still going strong in the “voicing cute animated creatures” department.

The actor played a handful of some minor (but still well-loved) roles over the years before landing on Charlie in The Whale, a 600-lb high school teacher who is trying to mend his bond with his daughter. Fraser’s portrayal of Charlie has earned him several monumental nominations, including one for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and, the most prestigious of all, the Philadelphia Film Critics award for best actor (which he won).

Even though he was missed from the spotlight, Fraser recently opened up about how he didn’t feel like he could take on a role like this until now. The actor recently told Deadline, “I didn’t have the life experience or the heartache. I hadn’t been a father long enough 10 years ago to appreciate what it means to have a young person in your life.” Fraser has three kids who are all teenagers, so they have probably seen Airheads by now. But still, he felt like he needed more time to be a dad before actually playing one.

Fraser also addressed the backlash surrounding being cast as a 600 lb man who needed a ton of prosthetics. “When this film was over, I had an unexpected reaction to taking off Charlie’s body the last time; I was really emotionally moved,” he explained before adding that he understood why it might have been off-putting. “I felt a strange sense of survivor’s guilt because I could take him off at the end of the day, and I’ve met people who live like that until they didn’t live anymore. I’ve had to take a page of my own sermon and rethink if I’ve been culpable or demeaning and overlooked them. Even if I did accidentally, I don’t ever want to do that again going forward.”

Next up, Fraser will go against several of his Hollywood peers in the Best Actor category at the Oscars, but he’s already won in everyone’s hearts, so they should just call the whole thing off anyway and replace the ceremony with a screening of Journey To The Center Of The Earth. It’s what everyone really wants, anyway! Get Josh Hutcherson back on the big screen!

(Via Deadline)