Brendan Fraser has selected his post-Oscar role and it’ll be in Searchlight’s “Rental Family,” which is directed by “Beef” director Hikari — she also co-wrote the script with Stephen Blahut.
The story follows follows a down-and-out actor living in Tokyo who is hired as a token American guy for a Japanese rental-family company, leading him on an unexpected journey of self-discovery through the roles he plays in other people’s lives.
Production is set to start this spring in Japan. Hikari also directed two episodes of Michael Mann’s HBO series, “Tokyo Vice.”
Fraser is coming off “The Whale,” which won him the Oscar for Best Actor earlier this year. His comeback was dubbed the “Brenaissance.” Did he deserve the Oscar for his performance? I’m not sure. Many will disagree with me on this one.
People tend to forget, the “Brendan Fraser for Best Actor” narrative began way before anybody had actually seen “The Whale.” It was actually started sometime in late Spring of 2022. The Oscar was his to lose months before the movie came out.
Then, once it premiered in September of 2022, Fraser’s performance had buzz that relied heavily on viral videos of him getting standing ovations, at various film festivals. For example, the ovation he received at Venice nabbed close to 400k likes on Twitter. Even non-movie fans were swept up by the narrative.
A24’s campaigning/marketing for the performance was aces. They mastered the art. It’s not like “The Whale” received rousing acclaim either — reviews were fairly mixed on the film. It was very divisive with critics, but audiences ate it up. Fraser was too damn loved by the mainstream, and the industry, at that point to not win.
So, yes, I still firmly stand by my assertion that Fraser’s performance in “The Whale” was not worthy of any honors, let alone the Oscar. The buzz was absolutely driven by this infectiously marketed narrative.
Fraser’s career has had some ups, many downs, he went through a lot, and he’s a survivor. Everyone was rooting for him because he’s a genuinely nice guy who got victimized by this toxic industry, but that’s a whole other story.