Brendan Fraser’s sons had a special gift waiting for their dad when the Oscar nominations were announced earlier this month.
“They brought me a cake and balloons,” said Fraser, who earned his first Academy Award nomination for best actor for his work in “The Whale.” Fraser spoke with Variety on Saturday at AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel
The cake was one of Carvel’s Fudgie the Whale ice cream cakes. The sweet treat is known as a Father’s Day gift that became popular in the 1970s and ’80s and includes frosting that reads, “To a Whale of a Dad!”
“It’s a core memory of mine,” Fraser said, smiling.
Asked what went through his mind when he heard his name during the nominations announcement, Fraser said, “Surprised, astonishment, happiness, hopefulness and humility because even being nominated is the fulfillment of an aspiration that any actor would be hard pressed to not admit that they had the hope to even dare for.”
Fraser stars in “The Whale” as an obese recluse trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter after the death of his boyfriend. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the film features Fraser starring along Hong Chau, who earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
“I was planning on being asleep and not paying attention to them,” Chau said about the nomination announcement. “But I have a 15-year-old dog who wakes up at night as much as a newborn baby does who was crying. So I was already up at five and having coffee in bed and was very pleasantly surprised.”
The 90th Oscars will be handed out on March 12 during a live telecast on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel is set to return as host.
Also at AARP, Paul Walter Hauser got down on one knee on the red carpet and presented a hamburger to Jamie Lee Curtis. He had promised to bring her a burger to the Golden Globes but forgot. He remembered for the Critics Choice Awards, but Curtis had to skip that ceremony because she had tested positive for COVID. “I love you and I feed the people that I love,” Hauser said.
