Brendan Fraser, whose heart-rending performance in the film “The Whale” vivified the debut screenplay of Moscow-born and -raised playwright Samuel D. Hunter, won the Best Actor award Sunday night in the 95th Academy Awards at Los Angeles.
Fraser’s first career Oscar further raised the profile of Hunter, who was an acclaimed but relatively little-known off-Broadway playwright in New York City before catching the attention of Darren Aronofsky, who went on to direct “The Whale” in close association with Hunter and others.
Hunter, who graduated from Moscow High School and has lived in Manhattan for two decades, adapted the “The Whale” screenplay from his 2012 play of the same name.
“It was written by Samuel D. Hunter, who is our lighthouse,” Fraser said in a quavering voice during his acceptance speech.
“You laid your whale-sized hearts bare so that we could see in your souls, like no one else could,” Fraser said of his fellow nominees for Best Actor, “and it is my honor to be named alongside you in this category.”
The remark was followed by enthusiastic applause.
Fraser, 54, had been considered the favorite for the award, whose other nominees were Austin Butler of “Elvis,” Colin Farrell of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Paul Mescal of “Aftersun,” and Bill Nighy of “Living.”
“The Whale” is the story of Charlie, a college online writing instructor struggling with severe obesity and trying to piece together a relationship with his embittered teenage daughter. Aronofsky, director of nearly 20 films of a wide variety of tones over more than three decades, made a quixotic decision to remain faithful to Hunter’s spare play, and they spearheaded filming at the height of the pandemic. Without specifically mentioning the University of Idaho, the film is unobtrusively set there, in Moscow.
Also winning an Oscar were “The Whale” makeup artists Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley, in the makeup and hairstyling category.
Hong Chau of “The Whale” was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but that award went instead to Jamie Lee Curtis of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
