Is The Whale based on a true story? Controversial movie explained

Brendan Fraser made his astonishing industry comeback in A24‘s The Whale, but is it based on a true story?

You may remember everyone going crazy for a movie called The Whale a few awards seasons ago. After being ousted by Hollywood some decades before, Brendan Fraser came back fighting in a blistering performance as Charlie, a 600 lb English teacher who is confined to his own home.

Now it’s back in public conversation thanks to its new streaming service home, and we get to sob our hearts out all over again. Set almost entirely in one apartment, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink and Hong Chau round out the supporting cast.

Charlie’s story is a devastating one, but is it real life? Here’s what you need to know about the true story behind The Whale.

The Whale is a true story… ish

According to screenplay writer Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale is a fictional story but draws on “several real-life experiences” in Hunter’s own life.

Hunter grew up in Moscow, Idaho, and was kicked out of his religious high school when he came out as gay. After spending time in the Midwest state at graduate school, he later went to Julliard – which is where he began to write The Whale. The story was originally an off-Broadway play in 2012 before being adapted.

As part of his course, Hunter took a job as a teacher of an expository writing class, very similar to what we see Charlie teach in the film. In fact, this part is so similar that when Charlie asks them to write something “honest,” a real response from Hunter’s class made it into the script.

He told the University of Iowa, “My students wrote incredible things. One wrote, ‘I think I need to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting,’ and it was such a heartbreaking and beautiful and vulnerable thing for this kid to write.

“That was when I asked myself if I could write a play about an expository writing teacher. It seemed very intellectual and weird, but I thought maybe I could do it.”

A24

Aside from this, The Whale is entirely fictional, though the writing is incredibly intentional for what we experience in modern-day life, Hunter explained.

“To me, cynicism is easy and intellectually bankrupt. The harder thing is to have faith in someone and to have hope, especially right now. My hope is that people get the sense that this story is about hard-won hope and dignity and about the importance of having faith in other people, which is something Charlie has in spades.

“The world has given him every reason to be cynical, every reason to not have faith in other people, but he refuses to lose that faith. That’s the heart of the film.”

Why is the movie so controversial?

At the time of its release, The Whale was accused of fatphobia, while also playing into “tired tropes” of issues such as suffering, chronic depression, and binge eating.

A24

During the movie, we see Charlie trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter before he dies, with his health rapidly deteriorating throughout the movie. He is simultaneously grieving the death of his late partner, who was also male.

To transform into Charlie, Fraser donned a fatsuit that took up to six hours to fit, which meant in some scenes he was carrying an extra 300 lbs.

However, this wasn’t a move that landed well with critics. The Daily Beast’s Rebecca Bodenheimer called the film “fatphobia at its worst,” adding, “When Fraser received a standing ovation for his award, it was clear who voted for him: an industry full of those who continue to demonize and balk at fatness.”

Eloise Hendy at The Independent explained, “While The Whale’s fat suit isn’t being used for laughs, it is utilized for something potentially more insidious and devastating: pity.”

Eating disorder Doctor Marcella Raimondo took this argument further, claiming, “The Whale leans on a stereotypical – and incredibly harmful – trope: that fat is the worst thing a person can be.”

Hunter’s response to criticism was that the script “deliberately pokes at some people’s prejudices,” as he told Variety.

He added “I wasn’t surprised by the blowback, because of the history of the way that obesity is treated on film. And we live in cynical and reactionary times.”

How to watch

The Whale is currently streaming on Netflix and Hoopla. You can also buy/rent the movie on Apple TV+.

If you haven’t signed up for the streaming service yet, you can catch Fraser’s performance using one of its tiered plans (sadly, there’s no free trial).

For more, check out all A24 movies releasing this year, new movies streaming this month, and the best movies of the year so far.