‘Saturday Night Live’ Mocks Brendan Fraser’s Casting in ‘The Whale’
During last night's episode of 'SNL,' one sketch criticized the steps taken to prepare Fraser for his recent role.
If it wasn't obvious last night, here's your confirmation Saturday Night Live poked fun at Brendan Fraser for his role in The Whale.
During the late-night comedy sketch show episode aired on Feb. 25, SNL mocked the actor for wearing prosthetics for his role in the Dec. 2022 film.
The sketch started with a call from the director of The Hippo telling its four cast members that the project would not be happening–including Woody Harrelson, who played Keith, an actor who gained 450 pounds for the role.
"Sorry. Just to be clear, the movie is officially dead, as in, we're not making it?" Keith asks the director, who responds, "Nope. The Hippo will never see the light of day."
Keith's co-stars then list everything they sacrificed to be in the film, including one actress who dyed her hair brown for her part–which seems pretty insignificant compared to decisions made in support of Keith's character.
"I gotta say, this is really unfortunate for me personally," Keith says, "I gained 450 real pounds in six months; that's a big lifestyle change!"
Related: Fans React to Brendan Fraser's Transformation Into a 600-Lb Man For New Movie
Later in the sketch, the director revealed that The Hippo was cancelled due to having an identical script to The Whale and crushed Keith's dreams of taking on a role in an upcoming Marvel movie now that he's gained weight.
“I think that ship has sailed,” he quipped. “I’m not exactly in X-Men shape right now.”
The real film is directed by Darren Aronofsky, and stars Fraser as Charlie, an English teacher who suffers from a compulsive eating disorder while attempting to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, Ellie, who is played by Stranger Things star Sadie Sink. The film is an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's 2012 play of the same name.
The Whale is still showing in select theaters for a limited time and is available for purchase online at Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV or Vudu.
