Brendan Fraser accepts the Best Actor award for "The Whale" onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Brendan Fraser accepts the Best Actor award for "The Whale" onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Brendan Fraser took out the Oscar for Best Actor last night but it wasn’t a win The Whale actor expected and resulted in a heartbreaking reaction.
Speaking backstage after he accepted the prestigious award, the star confessed that he thought there had been another huge Oscars mix-up when he heardhis name called in one of the biggest categories of the night.
Fraser said: “When I first heard my name, I heard my name and I thought: ‘That can’t be right’... but it was, so I guess I should get up there and say something quick.”
Brendan Fraser accepts the Best Actor award for "The Whale" onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
There was previously a real Oscars mix-up back in 2017 when La La Land was accidentally announced as the Best Picture winner by presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty only for the award to then be given to the rightful winner Moonlight instead.
However, Fraser’s win was the real deal and he went on to make an emotional speech in which he praised The Whale director Darren Aronofsky for throwing him a “creative lifeline” and also took the time to pay tribute to his fellow nominees, Austin Butler for Elvis, Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Paul Mescal for Aftersun and Bill Nighy for Living.
Speaking on stage, he gushed: “So this is what the multiverse looks like. I thank the Academy for this honour and our studio A24 for making such a bold film.
“I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale. It was written by Samuel D. Hunter who is our lighthouse.
“Gentlemen, you laid your whale-sized hearts bare so we could see into your souls like no one else could do and it is my honour to be named alongside you in this category.”
Fraser went on to pay tribute to co-star Hong Chau and the rest of the film’s cast and give a shoutout to his three children, Griffin, 20, Holden, 18, and 16-year-old Leland.
He said: “It’s like I’ve been on a diving expedition to the bottom of the ocean and the air on the line to the surface is on a launch to be watched over by some people in my life like my sons Holden, Leland and Griffin, I love you, Griffy.
“My manager Joanne Kalona, Jennifer Plant. Thank you again, each one and all. I’m so grateful to you. Goodnight.”
Brendan Fraser in The Whale. Photo / Supplied
It comes after Everything Everywhere All at Once swept up seven wins from their eleven nominations last night including Best Picture and Michelle Yeoh taking out the win for Best Actress for her lead role in the film.
New Zealand’s Wētā FX is the studio behind the visuals for James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel and the team behind the film were overjoyed as they accepted the award on the Oscars stage.
