Brendan Fraser wins best actor Oscar for 'The Whale' and proves nice guys can finish first

Sometimes you root for an actor’s performance to take home the Academy Award. Other times it’s all about the body of work.

Both things could be said for the sight of Brendan Fraser hoisting his first Oscar Sunday night for “The Whale” and also one more: Boy, it’s nice to see a genuinely good person get a win.

"I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement. It's like I've been on a diving expedition," Fraser says during his acceptance speech, thanking his sons for their support as well as director Darren Aronofsky for "throwing me a creative lifeline."

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The revelry from his win filtered to the backstage media room, where a tearful Fraser received a standing ovation. “I feel a bit light in the head. This is actually kind of heavy," he said of his new hardware. "One arm might be longer than the other by the end of the night.”

When Fraser first heard his name, "I thought, ‘That can’t be right,' but it was so I guess I should get up there and say something," he recalled. But as excited as he was, the newly minted best actor winner also stayed humble: “I hope that I live up to this.”

Fraser, 54, has been one of this awards season’s best comeback stories, though he never really went away. He first found stardom in the 1990s with memorable, sometimes goofy roles in films like “Encino Man,” “Airheads” and “The Mummy” that matched his affable nature. (His “Mummy” adventurer Rick O’Connell is arguably the closest anyone’s come to the heroic vibe of Harrison Ford’s iconic Indiana Jones.)

Over the years, there were hits and misses, and the occasional knockout performance – Fraser has always been a talented actor but his role in 1998’s “Gods and Monsters” really showed he had some Oscar-ready chops. There were difficulties off-screen as well: In a 2018 GQ interview, Fraser claimed he was groped by the then-head of the Hollywood Press Association in 2003, and said the incident affected him emotionally as well as his career.

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He was still around but sticking to smaller roles and voiceover parts, though not exactly phoning it in. Even though his face was barely shown, his role as the resident Robotman of the quirky and brilliant superhero show “Doom Patrol” gave him a chance to dig into comedic and tragic sides of a fan-favorite character.

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Then Aronofsky came along. The director cast Fraser in the lead role of “The Whale,” and the actor gave the performance of his lifetime underneath his prosthetics. As Charlie, a 600-pound online writing instructor yearning to make amends with his troubled teen daughter (Sadie Sink) before it’s too late, Fraser astounds with a beautiful and empathetic portrayal of a man hard on himself and who has made mistakes but believes in the best of people. The movie itself is polarizing – Fraser’s commitment to making an audience feel an array of tough emotions is not.

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But it takes an inner kindness to do that right. As “Whale” writer Samuel D. Hunter told USA TODAY, “I don’t know if a cynical actor could pull off this role.” In real life, Fraser is a humble, welcoming dude so soft-spoken that you hope your voice recorder picks up the gems he puts down. And he’s beloved by his fans: A couple of years ago, a viral TikTok captured Fraser getting emotional about hearing how people have his back.

That side has been apparent all through this awards season, beginning at the Venice Film Festival premiere of “The Whale” in September when Fraser was moved to tears by a six-minute standing ovation.

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His acceptance speeches have been inspirational and uplifting: "I was in the wilderness and I probably should have left a trail of breadcrumbs, but you found me," he said after getting a Critics Choice Award. And holding his Screen Actors Guild trophy, Fraser told struggling thespians that "I know how you feel. But believe me, if you just stay in there and you put one foot in front of the other, you'll get to where you need to go."

The Academy doesn’t always get it right but definitely did with Fraser, celebrating the performance, the career and the man. Who says nice guys can’t finish first?

Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brendan Fraser wins first Oscar for 'The Whale,' completes comeback