When Brendan Fraser collected the 2023 SAG Award for best leading actor in a motion picture for his work in “The Whale” on February 26, he was unable to control his tears.
Fraser made jokes as he examined the trophy, which was a statue of an actor, after receiving the honor. He chuckled, “This is good, a sort of naked man deciding whether to smile or grimace. “Like an actress, I guess.” He pointed to the statue and said, “I will preserve this. “But never more than my SAG card, which I received in 1991, which I used to adore and keep in my wallet.
We’re actors, we all want to feel like we belong to a tribe. And that’s where I found that I belonged.”
“If you told that guy back then that I’d be standing here right here, right now, I would not have believed you,” he continued. He then thanked “The Whale” director Darren Aronofsky, screenwriter and playwright Samuel D. Hunter, and his castmates Sadie Sink, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins, and Hong Chau; Chau was also nominated on Sunday night.
Without the love of my children, Griffin, Holden, and Leland; and their supermom, Afton; and my badass agent, Joanne Colonna; and the clarion call that is my girl, Jeanne, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” he said. He thanked the audience again and added of the statue, “I’m gonna go find this guy some pants now.”
Fraser’s date for the night was his girlfriend, Jeanne Moore, whom he was first publicly linked to in 2022.
This award season, Fraser also won best actor at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards for his role in “The Whale.” In two weeks, he’ll face off against Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal, and Bill Nighy for the Oscar.
