The Brendan Fraser-hype train seems to be catching steam, with an upcoming project with Martin Scorsese. However, his latest movie with director Darren Aronofsky The Whale seems to be catching some heat on the internet over its “fatphobic content”   

The movie, which premiered to multiple minutes-long applause at both the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival, is slowly drawing criticism over the portrayal of Fraser’s character. For context, here’s the official synopsis of the movie reads, “A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.”  

Fraser plays the role of a depressed, 600-pound man, for which the actor donned a fat suit, sparking some backlash. The criticism seems to have stemmed from Film critic, Katie Rife’s tweet, who advised both plus-sized and thin-framed viewers to skip the Darren Aronofsky film.   

In her following tweets, Rife went on cautioning viewers with an eating disorder, “Massive red flags for EDs and fatphobia; the main character endures over an hour of the cruelest verbal abuse imaginable, and later tries to commit suicide by food. I have dealt with bulimia and binge eating disorder on and off for years, and found it incredibly triggering.”

Further adding, “No actually fat peoples were involved in the production. The movie treats this as a combination of selflessness and suicidality, never considering the very obvious reason why a 650lb person would avoid doctors: IT’S CALLED MEDICAL FATPHOBIA YOU ABSOLUTE PR – – KS.”   

But also praises Fraser’s performance saying “And yes, Brendan Frasier is very good.” That being said, here’s how the internet reacted to it.