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In their 20s, Hunter and his husband taught expository writing at Rutgers University. The job paid the rent, but it wasn’t inspiring. One day, frustrated, Hunter asked his students to write something honest—it didn’t have to be a certain length or even particularly good. Based on one student’s heartbreaking response – “I guess I have to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting” – Hunter wrote a play about a teacher like himself, desperate to connect with a younger person. in the whale, Charlie makes a similar plea to his class, but more important and painful is his attempt to connect with his daughter before it’s too late.
The details of Charlie living with life-threatening obesity while reeling from the death of his lover came to Hunter later. “I came to it through my personal struggles with it, as I used to be much bigger,” Hunter says. “This is just my story – a lot of people out there are big and happy and healthy and just fine and deserve respect. But I was self-medicating with food and it was hard for me to live in the world like that person. I had never seen this story accurately told.
With Aronofsky the whale, we spend five days with Charlie. The film doesn’t shy away from showing compulsive overeating as part of this man’s daily life (and death). “Unfortunately, so many characters portrayed in the media who live with obesity are treated horribly—either humiliated, mocked, or simply live in misery,” says Aronofsky. “It was never Charlie. Obesity is just part of who Charlie is. After spending 10 minutes with Charlie, this is the breakthrough we hope the film has [for viewers].”
The first time Frasier saw Charlie’s prosthetic suit on a mannequin, it took his breath away. He thought it belonged in London’s Tate Modern. “It was so beautiful and so fascinating,” he says. A longtime collaborator of Aronofsky Adrian Carrott, an Oscar nominee known for innovative digital makeup effects was brought in early to provide an empathetic, realistic transformation. There is very little CGI in the final product, but instead incredibly complex and naturalistic prosthetics – modeled through digital sculpting before a 3D printer turns it into reality.
Fraser found the physical demands “cumbersome, not quite comfortable”, sometimes highly technical. “The torso part was almost like a straight jacket,” he explains, “with sleeves that went on, hand-finished to look identical to human skin, right down to the hand-dyed hair.” According to Aronofsky, Fraser wears anywhere from 50 to 300 extras kilograms during filming, depending on the content of the scene; in addition, Charlie is severely limited in mobility. (Several people were always on hand to help Fraser stand up, sit down, carry him up the 70 or more steps between the studio and the makeup room.) At the start of production, Fraser would spend five to six hours in a makeup chair , every day to turn into Charlie; after all, they counted down that hour to two to three.
Working closely with the Obesity Action Coalition, Fraser immersed herself in the details of the disease, speaking to many people who had undergone bariatric surgery and watching countless dramas, comedies, documentaries and reality shows to fully understand people’s previous portrayals with a higher weight. When he took off all the makeup, he felt dizzy, as if he had just stepped off a ship at a dock. “I quickly learned that it takes an incredibly strong person in that body to be that person,” Fraser says. “It felt appropriate, poetic and practical, all at once.”
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