Brendan Fraser Opens Up About Insecurity After ‘Rental Family’ Screening

London, England – Brendan Fraser shared personal reflections during a Q&A session following a screening of his latest film, ‘Rental Family,’ in London. The actor revealed that working on the film helped him confront his long-standing self-doubt.

Fraser, who won an Oscar for Best Actor in 2023 for ‘The Whale,’ told the audience, ‘I struggle with insecurity, and to make this film, it reminded me that I’m good enough, and I always was all along. Why am I giving myself such a hard time? It’s there.’

The screening was part of an emotional panel discussion as ‘Rental Family’ has been selected for the Toronto, London, and Tokyo Film Festivals. The film follows Fraser’s character, Philip Vanderplug, an outsider navigating Tokyo’s unique ‘rental family’ industry, where individuals hire stand-ins to fill the roles of relatives or companions.

Hikari, the film’s director and co-writer, explained that the idea for the movie came about during the pandemic. ‘My co-writer Stephen Blahut was randomly looking for a job in Tokyo, and he found a job such as rental family,’ Hikari said. ‘I’m Japanese. I know nothing about the rental family business.’

The concept resonated with Hikari as a means to explore themes of modern isolation. ‘The pandemic really gave us distance. There’s not really much of a connection in between.’

The cast contributed personal experiences that enriched the film’s exploration of loneliness and displacement. One actor mentioned his own childhood spent alone as a student abroad, drawing parallels with his character’s experiences.

Mari Yamamoto, who plays a former actor, connected her character’s journey to her own childhood experience of moving to the U.K. from Japan. ‘People want connection, but they feel meaning in being useful to somebody,’ she said.

Fraser praised his young co-star Shannon Gorman, calling her ‘a genuine article’ and noting her exceptional emotional range. ‘She has an ability to express herself with an emotional bandwidth that is astonishing,’ he said.

Veteran actor Akira Emoto also reflected on his character’s themes of mortality and memory loss. Through a translator, he shared his belief that ‘loneliness is not necessarily a bad thing.’

The film’s production took five years to complete, navigating pandemic challenges and industry strikes before finally filming could begin in Tokyo.