Brendan Fraser has a curious connection to this classic Disney movie

Actor Brendan Fraser, Oscar 2023 nominee for Best Actor for his role in The Whale, The whalefor whom he has already won the Critics’ Choice Award and the SAG Award in the same category, has an emotional connection beyond any reasonable doubt with ratatouille, one of the best Disney movies. It’s not just that it’s one of Brendan Fraser’s favorite movies anymore, it’s ratatouille, the first after Disney acquired Pixar, but has established a strong emotional bond with it over the past fifteen years. It is, without a doubt, as the actor admits, the film he has seen the most times, but, above all, it is a film with which he has come to establish a very intimate relationship, extracting life lessons from it, which fit now like a glove in the message of resilience that Brendan Fraser is building ahead of his speech at the Oscars, of winning, of course, the statuette for Best Leading Actor (assuming, of course, that Austin Butler doesn’t steal it for his role in Elvis). “ratatouille It is one of my favorite movies of all time. I have three children, and when they were growing up, I cooked for them at home while we watched ratatouille“, tells Brendan Fraser to actress Michelle Yeoh in the wonderful podcast that the A24 studio hasresponsible for the two films starring the two performers, The Whale and Everything at once everywhere. The Disney film comes up during the conversation between the two actors when they comment on the tribute it does Everything at once everywhere to ratatouille (You know, when the Mapachuille character stands on Harry Shum’s head pulling the hairs on his head just like the headline of the Disney movie).

“At the end of ratatouillewhen Anton Ego delivers his final review of the restaurant… I’ve rewatched the movie and revisited that dialogue many times [en los últimos quince años] because it talks about the creative process from the point of view of a critic. And Ego says it’s fun to write bad things about people and take credit for other people’s work. But he changes his heart, of course. And that’s the key. And I think there’s a message there that really speaks to us as actors as well, as film people. Stick to what your vision is. stick with your truthsays Fraser. “You have to do it like this,” Michelle Yeoh tells her.Let people get closer to you and not the other way aroundFraser replies. “If your vision is bold enough and your storytelling is good, they will come to you. Isn’t that right?” Yeoh then says. “I totally agree,” says Fraser. “if you can build it [algo que merezca la pena, algo arriesgado]people will end up coming“, sentence.

The conversation between the actors revolves around the debate on whether their films are intended for the general public or for a specific audience, even for critics. Michelle Yeoh doubts that hers is not for all audiences. And there Brendan Fraser disagrees. “I don’t agree. I think you’ve given the public what they wanted. That movie is a popular choice. [También creo que] The Whale it is more a movie for the public than a movie for critics. It’s kind of 50/50 as a movie for the critics. He talks to people. does not speak to him brainiacs whose job it is to write and critique, and to be Anton Ego in ratatouille. She talks to the people who are watching the movie. He speaks to the people who eat the food of ratatouille“, says.

Let’s see, Fraser misses out on the fact that Ego’s character has been misinterpreted for years. He’s not really the villain of the movie. He can even be seen as a hero, wow. Yes, you’re right, Ego’s office is shaped like a coffin and yes, he releases lapidary phrases. But the critic, along with criticism as a genre, if you get fine, even as an institution, he ends up actually being the hero of the Disney movie. That same scene that Brendan Fraser refers to has another reading: Ego writes a review that not only saves a bistro run by, ahem, rats (don’t forget) from absolute and irremediable financial ruin and gastronomic oblivion, but also, on a more ambitious level, it seeks to stir up the boring world of hospitality (a bit like what our wine critic Santi Rivas does) and serves as an enthusiastic defense of how a good review (made in the field in which done) can make the world more exciting.