The film won the Oscar for best hair and makeup on Sunday night
Skincare brand Dove has taken a stand against the Academy Awards after The Whale bagged the gong for best hair and makeup.
The film features Brendan Fraser as a morbidly obese English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter Ellie, played by Sadie Sink.
Fraser wears a prosthetic suit in the film, which he has compared to a “straight jacket” that added up to 300 pounds of weight.
But not everyone was happy that the Mummy actor was even cast in the first place.
Toiletries giant Dove endorsed a Twitter post that put the Oscar-winning makeup team for The Whale on blast.
The tweet they supported was posted by a ‘fat’ social media user (their word, not ours).
They said: “So disappointing that The Whale won the Oscar for the best hair and makeup.”
They added: “Fat suits are harmful – they are not your opportunity to win awards. Our identity is not your costume. Cast fat actors to play fat characters.”
Replying in a tweet, the soapmaker added: “Stop giving fat suits awards. We want better representation in Hollywood.”
They weren’t the only ones to decry The Whale’s Oscar-winning performance. .
One social media user said: “The Oscar for best makeup going to the construction of a fat suit on The Whale is blatantly disrespectful. And to blast this specific image of a fake fat body on display behind the award is inconceivable.”
Another Twitter user commented: “I don’t appreciate that the makeup team who created a fat suit just won an Oscar and that is because we need to have better stories with fat actors and not thinner actors in fat suits.”
A third gave a blistering remark: “Quick, someone get up and slap the person responsible for the fat suit in The Whale.”
However, one user revealed their point of view on the issue had changed after watching lead actor Brendan Fraser’s interview with Adam Sandler for Variety, where he discussed why he donned the suit.
“It’s important to say this, because there are those who live with this disease,” he said.
“I felt empowered to be their voice and to be as honest as I could and as authentic as I could in the portrayal. Look, my weight has been all over the map.”
Fraser continued: “I put on weight to play this role, and it wasn’t enough — so the body had to go on top of that, and the two worked together.”
Related links:
- Brendan Fraser delivers tearful speech after winning Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards
- Can you ace this ultimate Brendan Fraser quiz?
- Brendan Fraser ‘not opposed’ to reprising role in The Mummy film franchise
