Daniel Franzese Slams Casting of Brendan Fraser in ‘The Whale’ Then Clarifies

"...who knows more about being an obese queer man than an obese queer man?"

Franzese, known by most for his roles in HBO's Looking and Tina Fey's Mean Girls, wasn't wrong when he called out Hollywood for yet again ignoring plenty of perfect queer contenders in favor of a straight one, and in this case specifically a large-bodied queer actor in favor of a thin one in a "fat suit."

The role in question stars Brendan Fraser in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, which recently received critically rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival, as well as a 6-minute standing ovation for Fraser himself for his portrayal of Charlie, a 600-pound gay English teacher with an estranged daughter, who decides to eat himself to death.

In an interview with PEOPLE Magazine, Franzese griped that this was just another example of a pattern with a long history. Though he notes that he takes no personal issue with Fraser himself, telling the magazine, "I love Brendan Fraser, [so] I'm very conflicted." Continuing, "Seeing him get up so modest in Venice and have that moment, I was very happy for him. He's a lovely man. And it's great. But why? Why go up there and wear a fat suit to play a 400-lb. queer man?"

In this case, Franzese says he would have even simply loved to have read for the part, telling the magazine, "I would have loved to have read for this. ...But I guess you can go ahead and wear a fat suit and do what you got to do and get your Oscar. We'll just sit here, waiting,"

After receiving some flack for the comments from people saying he's taking away from Fraser's success, Franzese took to Twitter on Wednesday to clarify his intentions, but also not to back off from the issue at hand. His issue is not with Brendan, nor any other specific actor. Nor is his issue even stating that only queer people can play queer roles. He's just saying he'd like to see the rooms open up to more people to play the roles that are inspired by them, noting also that, "There's no right time to have difficult conversations."

I was asked, "Are you excited about The Whale?" Let me clarify. I love this creative team but I also can't help but see another perspective. https://t.co/A0B9EeZaiw pic.twitter.com/bcit7qiLHp

— Daniel Franzese (@WhatsupDanny) September 28, 2022

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