Brendan Fraser has revealed that his eldest son helped him connect with his obese character in The Whale.
In the forthcoming movie, the 54-year-old actor plays a 600-pound reclusive English teacher named Charlie who struggles to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter - played by Stranger Things star Sadie Sink.
During a recent interview with Freddie Prinze Jr for Interview magazine, Brendan spoke about his process of transforming into the character and explained that it wasn't just prosthetics that allowed him to get into Charlie's mindset.
The George of the Jungle actor - who is a father of three: Griffin, 20, Holden, 18, and Leland, 16, with ex-wife Afton Smith - reflected on how living with his eldest son helped shape his role in the critically acclaimed film.
"He just turned 20. He’s a big kid, he’s 6-foot-5. He’s got big hands and feet, a big body. I understand intimately what it is to be close to a person who lives with obesity," Brendan said about his son.
The Mummy actor explained that Griffin, who has autism, is also the happiest person he knows, saying: "Because of the beauty of his spectrum — call it a disorder if you will, I disagree with you - he knows nothing of irony."
"He doesn’t know what cynicism is. You can’t insult him. He can’t insult you. He’s the happiest person and is, in my life and many others’, also the manifestation of love," he added.
Check out the trailer for The Whale:The Whale actor told the 46-year-old She's All That star that his relationship with his son and family helped him to connect to his character.
"Being with my kids and their mom and our family has given me such love that if ever I needed to hold something of value up to try and translate that to what was important to Charlie [character in The Whale], I didn’t have to look far," Brendan said.
While the Bedazzled star is being praised for his performance in the film, he was also under backlash for wearing heavy prosthetics to portray his character.
In September, Brendan - who reportedly worked with the Obesity Action Coalition for research - addressed the criticism surrounding him wearing a fat suit in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
He said that the experience gained from this role gave him "an appreciation for the incredible courage they have to possess themself," adding, "It takes an incredibly strong-willed and physically strong person to live inside a body that is, in Charlie's case, hundreds and hundreds of pounds."
Also, according to the outlet, during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, Brendan further explained the significance of his role. He said that he found that once he took the suit off, he could "still feel the sensation of wearing it".
"At the same time, once I took all the applications off at the end of the day, I felt a deepening sense of respect for people who live in that corporal being, because I could remove it like clothing and wardrobe and makeup, and their challenge to do that with their own body is not as sudden," he said.
The Whale premieres on December 9 in theaters.