5 Lessons from Brendan Fraser’s Oscar win
Brendan Fraser’s winning the Best Actor award at the Oscar 2023 gives his fans a massive reason to celebrate. But the win is not just his achievement alone and it isn’t just the win of his fans who genuinely cared about him when he was no longer in the limelight.
It’s the collective victory for all of us who feel stuck. The win feels personal to all of us who have not only watched him in his best physical and professional form but also his lowest of lows, when he struggled with weight, spoke about the groping incident, and got blacklisted from Hollywood.
The win feels personal to all of us who’ve rooted for him when he started his second innings and wept tears of joy when he received a six-minute-long standing ovation at the London Film Festival and Venice Film Festival for his performance in “The Whale.” The win gives us hope that no matter how washed we feel, no matter how burnt out we are, we can turn things around and things will change for the better.
If you’re at a stage where you feel that nothing is happening, then the spectacular comeback of Brendan Fraser can give you some perspective. This blog post discusses five key lessons from Brendan Fraser’s Oscar win.
Lesson 1: Nice guys don’t always finish last.
As American writer, Mort Walker once famously said “Nice guys don’t finish last. They win even before the race starts.”
Brendan Fraser is certainly not the most-prolific method actor in Hollywood. But he is one of the nicest guys in the industry.
That’s the reason the actor commands such diehard loyalty and respect from his fans even after doing about 50 movies, most of which are indie movies.
Even though the Oscar will serve as a testament of his talent, his admirers and fans would’ve loved him all the same (had he not won the Academy award).
He is living proof that nice guys don’t always come last. Many of them are in completely different race. And when they’ve to compete, boy they do come first.
If you think that being nice impedes success, then here’s news for you. Being nice doesn’t have to mean that you will have to forego success.
Lesson 2: Efforts and consistency always pay. Always
Brendan Fraser started his acting career with Dogfight, which was released in 1991. In the movie, he played a supporting role. He got the lead role in his third film, School Ties released in 93. After doing about a dozen more movies, he tasted mind-boggling success that lasted for five years. In that golden period, from 1997 and 2002, he did movies that would define his career. Some of the movies included George of the Jungle, The Mummy, Dudley Do-Right, Bedazzled, The Mummy Returns, and The Quite American.
But after that phase, all the movies in which he acted crashed (except for some like the 2004 movie “Crash”).
Despite not getting any big banners and lead roles, he didn’t stop acting. If you take a look at his filmography, you’ll see that he has taken a five-year break from movies between 2014 and 2019 but he acted in seven TV series such as Texas Rising, The Affair, Night Cap, Trust, Condor, Titans, and Doom Patrol.
Lesson 3: Pain and heartache are necessary for growth.
The death of a parent. A bitter divorce. Sexual assault. Health problems. Depression. The actor withstood all these and more in quick succession during the worst phase of his life. But his patience and resilience enabled him to withstand the pain and heartaches.
After completing “The Whale” and receiving all the accolades in the world, he said had the movie happened any earlier in his career, he wouldn’t have had the life experience to play a character who lives with anguish, pain, and health problems.
Lesson 4: Self-belief is more powerful than self doubt
Did Brendan Fraser ever felt self-doubt?
But his self-belief made all the difference.
Lesson 5: Sometimes, you need to break the mold to achieve your highest potential
Back in 1997 to 2008, Brendan Fraser was one of the fittest and the most handsome actors in the world. Brendan Fraser’s breakthrough movie “The George of the Jungle” required him to build eight-pack abs and wear only a loin cloth. He became the epitome of the perfect man soon after that. His character in George of the Jungle was instrumental in making him the quintessential action hero of that time.
But when he began to put on weight, he didn’t shy away from playing roles that were so different from the heroic roles he played during his peak physical form. For ‘The Whale,’ he went a step further. He played the role of a gay man who is morbidly obese. To prepare for the role, he had to put on a fat suit and endure hours of makeup.
Versatile actors like Brendan Fraser are masters at breaking the mold and going far beyond their comfort zones. Hope these five lessons from Brendan Fraser’s Oscar win will inspire you. Because if it can’t then nothing in the world will.
