Brendan Fraser learnt Japanese for Rental Family
Hollywood actor Brendan Fraser took classes to learn Japanese for his new movie Rental Family which was filmed in Tokyo.
Brendan Fraser learnt Japanese for his new movie Rental Family.
The Mummy star, 56, plays an actor working in Tokyo for a rental family service – a business which allows people to hire actors to pose as relatives or companions - and he's revealed he spent time in the city ahead of the shoot so he could immerse himself in Japanese culture.
In a behind-the-scenes video, Brendan explained: "I love the aspect of making discoveries ... I took the time to come in early enough to feel like I had my own Tokyo story to tell. I spent enough time wandering the streets with my pocket translator trying to talk to anybody ...
"[It was] was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had in my career."
The film's writer/director Hikari went on to reveal the actor took classes to learn Japanese for the role. She said: "Brendan speaks a lot of Japanese in this movie.
"He was like: ‘I’m in.’ So he took classes three or four times a week."
It comes after the actor admitted making the movie helped him confront long-held feelings of insecurity.
Describing the project as a turning point in his relationship with his own self-belief, the Oscar-winning actor opened up during a question and answer session in London following a screening of the film.
Brendan 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."
Hikari went on to explain the story grew from an unexpected discovery during the pandemic.
She said: “My co-writer Stephen Blahut was randomly looking for a job in Tokyo, and he found a job such as rental family.
"I’m Japanese. I know nothing about the rental family business."
She added: “Pandemic really gave us distance. There’s not really much of a connection in between."
Takehiro Kira, who plays a workaholic struggling with loneliness in the movie, said his performance drew on personal memories of isolation.
He added: “I went to the States when I was 15, and I spent many days, and Christmas nights, sitting all by myself in the room, like Philip [Brendan's charcter] was sitting on the bed. When I saw the film for the first time, that was a scene that made me cry."
Rental Family is due for release in January.
