Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese has defended what has become the film’s most divisive aspect: Brendan Fraser.
The new movie, released last month, has received unanimous praise from critics, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro’s performances in particular expected to receive awards attention.
But days after release, Brendan Fraser’s role in the film was placed under scrutiny with many cinemagoers sharing their displeased reactions to the actor’s “over-the-top” performance.
Fraser plays DiCaprio’s character’s lawyer, W. S. Hamilton, and he does not appear until approximately two hours, 45 minutes into the three-and-a-half hour-long film.
Brendan Fraser in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’— (Apple TV+)
His performance has been called everything from “showy” to “exaggerated”, with many highlighting a scene in which he bellows “you dumb boy!” at DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart.
However, Scorsese disagrees with this viewpoint and, during a press conference he praised Fraser when he was asked about his role in the film, LADBible reports.
“We thought he’d be great for the lawyer and I admired his work over the years,” Scorsese said, adding: “He actually came in for I think a couple of weeks on the picture, particularly when it was in our later shoot.
“We had a really good time working together, particularly with Leo – particularly in the scene where he says, ‘They’re putting a noose around your neck – he’s saving you dumb boy!’
“Really for us, when we heard that… he brought the whole scene down on Leo. It was perfect. And he had that girth. He’s big in the frame at that time. He’s a wonderful actor and he was just great to work with.”
Scorsese said Fraser ‘had girth’— (Getty Images)
The filmmaker was addressing the weight Fraser gained for his role in Darren Aronofsky’s drama The Whale, for which he won Best actor at the Oscars earlier this year.
Killers of the Flower Moon is an adaption of David Grann’s non-fiction book documenting the string of murders that plagued the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma during the 1920s after oil was found on their land. The case was deemed the FBI’s first homicide investigation.
The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey, in her five-star review, said the film carries Scorsese’s “tradition fixations: the rotted core of man’s heart; how power breeds the impulse for destruction; the myths of cowboys and outlaws and the dirty truth to them”.
Killers of the Flower Moon is the 80-year-old filmmaker’s first film since The Irishman, released in 2019.
