‘The Whale’ star Brendan Fraser gets emotional at 2023 SAGs

Brendan Fraser is a winner for the “role of his life.”

“The Whale” star got emotional while accepting the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the 2023 SAG Awards on Sunday.

“I’m smiling I’m breathing,” Fraser, 54, said. “That’s half the job.”

The actor said that Ian McKellan told him that if he won and got to make an acceptance speech, he should “be good, be brief and be seated.”

However, Fraser’s speech turned out to be much longer than the allotted time limit as he even mused about the SAG award itself. “This is good,” he said while looking at his trophy, which he called “sort of naked man making up his mind to smile or to frown — like an actor.”

“I will treasure this but never more than what I treasured that I used to keep in my wallet which was my SAG card which I earned in 1991,” the “George of the Jungle” star went on.

“It made me feel like I belonged. We’re actors, we all want to belong to a tribe and that’s where I found my tribe,” “The Mummy” actor reflected.

Fraser went on to say he was thankful to work with a “world-class filmmaker” like Darren Aronofsky, who directed “The Whale.”

“I never would have believed I would have been offered the role of my life,” Fraser said, noting, like his character Charlie, he’s been on a “raft of regrets” but also found himself “in a sea of hope.”

“I’ve been at that sea and I’ve rode that wave lately it’s been powerful and good,” he added. “And I’ve also had that wave smash me right down to the ocean floor and drag my face along there and wind up on some strange beach in a different world and wonder where am I now.”

Fraser, who made his comeback with the critically-acclaimed film, also gave advice to fellow actors.

“Believe me, if you just stay in there and you put one foot in front of the other, you’ll get to where you need to go,” he said. “Have courage.”