Obesity: Brendan Fraser Whale and fake fat actors

From laughter to dramatic use leading to Oscar winning. Dramatic art or exploitation of a physical condition?

Noot is a good time for anyone who wants to the overalls that grease away from each movie. With the double Oscar to Brendan Fraser and the make up of The Whale, rigged obesity she is safe. She may not live for quite a while in the shameless way she used her Darren Aronofskybut he certainly had his temporary rehabilitation. Salva however it was already for a while. Shelved the gag effect with Gwyneth Paltrow fat at the time of Love at first sightin 2001, the fat suit – the prosthetic suit for those who are fluent – ​​has come back into use in recent years such as finely dramatic ploy. Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Renée Zellweger, Emma Thompson they wore one in Elvis, The Batman, The thing about Pam and in Matilda

Stratagem that brings honors, before Brendan there had been the Oscar to Gary Oldman in The darkest hour. Other memorable uses have been that of Jared Leto/ Paolo Gucci in House of Gucciwhose makeup was called horrible by the daughter of Paul, Patrizia (“my father was anything but overweight”); and of Sarah Poulson as Linda Tripp in Impeachment: American Crime Story. Series in which he stars alongside Beanie Feldsteindecidedly curvy actress who plays Monica Lewinsky

Then how come – asked the Los Angeles Times to Sarah – resort to these circus tricks if you can hire the part-fitting professionals. “I should have thought about it better”, Poulson replied just to calm things down. Adding other things, all pretty unassailable

And that is but that it is important for an actor to believe that he is capable of playing any character. And that getting a role only thanks to a specific physical requirement it is rather an understatement of the profession. In addition to the magic of makeup, photography, lights and costumesthe obvious things about drama

Pretty much what Brendan Fraser saidwith one more technical clarification, that his fat suit it wasn’t like a comedy-risk costumerather a high-design product intended to simulate what it means to carry 260 kilos. But he didn’t save to The Whale the exploitative criticism of obesity

Obesity brought to a state of horror called “trauma porn”or simply fat phobia. Because obese people have busy, fulfilling, active livesshow them in an exclusive condition of suffering, even of death, he confines the narrative to pity alone. Plus, futuristic technology or not, “pretend to” is like practicing the blackface (face make-up to portray a black person), it is, in short, skill: the actor with fake kilos doesn’t sweatdoes not breathe as an obese person would between the bathroom, bed and sofa

And Charlie, the protagonist of whalehe’s also gaytherefore to the unique portrait that cinema reserves for gays, “person with AIDS”, now was added that of the traumatized gay man with serious food problems. In short, the monster with the recharge of another monster. The not so vague idea that both lifestyles have representative dignity only in so far as they are unnaturalexceptional, only as a challenge – rewarded – for each actor. While in reality it is a completely different administration

Do you want to get better, pleasure? Lose weight. You don’t want to risk it to catch a disease today luckily no longer deadly, change your sexual preferences. It’s easy, just do like normal people

Obesity, fat suits and movies: empathy or pietism?

Yet he once got fat by contract. What happened to the practice of putting on weight for a role, where have the Robert De Niros gone that modified the physique with the ease of an accordion, but also Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones (the good old days when he said he ate pizza every day for the good of the cinema, and of takings)? Probably a great desire for comfort has taken over. The fact that the sacred fire of art it’s not that sacred to the point of become totally life on script

As long as it’s 10 kilosthose put on by Renee, or Charlize Theron’s 20 for Monsters (another Oscar), everything is ok, nobody wants to know more. Perhaps, between the famous method acting and Alfred Hitchcock which asked the cattle-actors to, simply, act, won the second. You take singing lessons, you study professions, accents, you become ugly and then beautiful again for clothes, make up and red carpet

Where do they even go Melissa McCarthy, Lizzo, Rebel Wilson (in the meantime lost weight), Jonah Hill and Seth Gordon. And for the duration of This is us Also Chrissy MetzI believe the only plus-size actress in a body-hugging role, meaning character (Kate Pearson) with weight problems, discrimination, self-acceptance and its measures that correspond to those experienced in real life

No fat suits for herwhich she instead used as a cannon woman in American Horror Story 4. An enormous fat lady whose awkward movements made her become more conscious of the health problem associated with obesity – how it was an easy step to get to extra dimensions. Since then, scared, keeps a check on her weightbut without losing weight how would Gwyneth Paltrow tell her she could convert Goop into “7 kilos in 7 days”

«Do I want to take care of my body and live a happy life? Certainly”, Metz told at the 2019 Power Women Summit“But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it with an unconventional size». Kate Pearson was a normalization of obesity (today they say that, in a striking association with dictatorial normality) which was very successful. It was the counterpart some laughs at Fat Monica’s Friendsa form of resistance to fat phobia speaking of it as a traumatized person, however intensifying the trauma in a feel-good sense

four fatsuits across three films in the five films that comprise the Makeup category at the #Oscars this year…. pic.twitter.com/VEW8YhxMYg

— Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) March 3, 2023

Charlie’s whale it could be the horror version of Kate, but, precisely, if it has to be an exaggerated representation then do it with real kilos. It is the identity request of these years, otherwise, obese people and actors are made invisible. The request that prompted Tom Hanks to say that, today, he wouldn’t Philadelphiawithout, however, dissuading him from becoming fat in a suit for Elvis. Which forces a constant game of distinctions and dissociations. And apologies. And mistakes

Nobody likes to be described in the worst possible way, in failure, in derision. From highly decorated stars and from stars who return to success thanks to the painful role. It’s not nice to wear an xxl size swimsuit and then go slim again, to be gay and then heterosexual againfor contemporary sensibilities it is a form of looting against people who understand humiliation.

With the requests of the offended categories, with the warnings, with the quotas, however, not much of interest is produced. Even obscene but curious as an experiment. Rather, we end up doing control work, to have necessary but static things. To lose focus, criticizing the Marilyn Monroe piece of meat (dead) by Ana de Armas and not the fact that, after This is usChrissy Metz (alive) has only one film coming out: a horror for Christmas 2023 in which her size is already a savings on makeup

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