Martin Scorsese Defends Brendan Fraser's 'Girthy' Performance in 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

Martin Scorsese himself has weighed in on Brendan Fraser’s divisive, much-maligned cameo in Killers of the Flower Moon. The legendary filmmaker praised Fraser, both for his performance and for his size.

“We thought he’d be great for the lawyer and I admired his work over the years,” Scorsese said at the WSJ's Innovator Awards press conference on Thursday, per Variety. “He actually came in for I think a couple of weeks on the picture, particularly when it was in our later shoot.”

Fraser appears nearly three hours into the marathon film as W.S. Hamilton, an over-the-top lawyer representing William Hale (Robert De Niro) as he and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) stand trial for murdering multiple Osage tribe members. As Ernest is about to damn himself in testimony, Scorsese’s signature dolly-zoom brings us face-to-face with Fraser. He goes on to appear in several more scenes, coaching Ernest on how to best evade conviction.

“We had a really good time working together, particularly with Leo,” Scorsese revealed. “Particularly in the scene where [Fraser] 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."

Scorsese then revealed there was one specific reason he felt Fraser would be right for the role. "He had that girth," the director marveled. "He’s big in the frame at that time.”

The filmmaker concluded: “He’s a wonderful actor and he was just great to work with.”

Viewers didn’t know what to make of Fraser’s performance, perhaps because it’s so unlike anything else in the film. Yet Scorsese's adaptation is unerringly faithful, down to extremely minute details, and this extends to Hamilton’s emotional depiction. It's unclear, though, if the real Hamilton had a similar "girth."

Apple Original Films noted to critics that Fraser did the real-life lawyer justice, as they posted a passage from David Grann’s source novel. It shows the boisterous dialogue written exactly as it appears in the movie. “Note the exclamation point,” the caption reads.

Fraser, the former box office mega-star behind George of the Jungle and The Mummy franchise, is in the middle of a career renaissance. He disappeared for nearly a decade, before reemerging in smaller character roles throughout the mid-2000s. Last year, he earned an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as a morbidly obese agoraphobic man in The Whale.