Mike Lowery
Loco Fraser gathering steam over Hollywood ravine.
The one-time Hollywood it boy (“George of the Jungle”, “School Ties”, “The Mummy”) disappeared from our screens for a while – do a google and you’ll discover the was battling health issues and was allegedly sexually assaulted – but emerged, and triumphantly so, with the role of in the excessively-fun DC series “Doom Patrol”.
Off the back of his success in the series, Fraser has been plucked to headline the next film from Darren Aronofsky.
“The Whale”, which the “The Fountain” and “The Fighter” director helms for A24 and his Protozoa Pictures label, is based on the 2012 play by Samuel D.Hunter. The play told the story of a 600-pound recluse hiding away in his apartment eating himself to death who is desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter.
Fraser’s biggest credits of the last five years, besides “Doom Patrol”, include the animated feature “The Nut Job”, “The Poison Rose” with John Travolta and Morgan Freeman, and “Gimme Shelter”. He recently wrapped Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move”.
The one-time ‘Superman’ contender (he was in talks to headline the McG incarnation) told GQ a couple of years ago that the toll of doing physically-demanding films like “The Mummy” and its sequels spurred his decision to take a step back.
“I felt like the horse from Animal Farm, whose job it was to work and work and work. Orwell wrote a character who was, I think, the proletariat. He worked for the good of the whole, he didn’t ask questions, he didn’t make trouble until it killed him.… I don’t know if I’ve been sent to the glue factory, but I’ve felt like I’ve had to rebuild shit that I’ve built that got knocked down and do it again for the good of everyone. Whether it hurts you or not.”
“I changed houses; I went through a divorce. Some kids were born. I mean, they were born, but they’re growing up. I was going through things that mold and shape you in ways that you’re not ready for until you go through them. ”
Good to see Fraser back.
Via ‘Deadline‘
