Whenever A-list stars take on the role of a struggling actor, they may be tempted to draw from their own earliest experiences when developing their character. This wasn’t the case for Brendan Fraser.
“I'm going to let you in on a secret: Phillip’s not really an actor”, Fraser told Zavvi. “I saw him as a guy who has long been on the road, away from the west, running away from something that he didn’t want to be a part of anymore.
“He’s been a foreigner in Japan for seven or so years when we meet him, but I didn’t assume he was an actor before he got this toothpaste commercial; I assumed it was something that was handy to get a chunk of change in his pocket, not a vocation. He likely just responded to a subway ad asking for an actor, they made him goof with props, and he called himself an actor as an easy business model!”
The Oscar-winning star is keen to stress that his Rental Family character Phillip isn’t an actor, but a gig economy worker who just happened to fall into this lane. This quirky toothpaste commercial is what gets him noticed by the Rental Family company, who are desperately looking for a “token white guy” to step into the lives of their clients.
Some clients just want friends to hang out with; others need him to pretend to be a long-lost parent, or a pretend partner so elderly parents will get off their children’s back about settling down and finding a husband. It sounds like the kind of unusual job that could only exist in Japan, but when conducting research for the role, Fraser discovered that this was the result of a much more universal problem.
“If you look around Tokyo, so many of the expats there have similar stories because of how expensive it is to live there; everybody must be hustling all the time, which creates a beehive of activity that’s no different to any other major city. It breeds an environment where you must spend all your hours and energy in the gig economy and it leaves you lonely because you’re so burnt out afterwards.
“This film blows that up to epic proportions, by showing Phillip connecting with other lonely demographics through his own gig economy role, whether they’re the elderly forgotten by their families, or the middle-aged men who just need a friend to play video games with them and tidy their room! It all comes down to needing connection and having to settle for this just to have that fulfilled.”
Writer/director Hikari, following up her work on the Emmy-winning Netflix series Beef, knew that Fraser would be the perfect everyman to play Phillip after seeing The Whale, which premiered three years after she wrote her first draft of the Rental Family script.
She told Zavvi: “His performance in that movie was so heart-wrenching, but it was the most subtle moments that caused me to feel the most pain. That’s what I needed in Phillip, a man who has gone through so much but wears it lightly; he must carry around the burden that he didn’t see his father’s death, for example.
“But of course, what made me really want to work with him was the fact Brendan is such a kind, generous, lovely human being. Those qualities are the most important shared with Phillip – when I saw him in The Whale, I just knew instinctively.”
Hikari naturally sees similarities between the two Fraser characters, as both are at the centre of stories tackling the theme of loneliness. The actor sees things differently.
“Charlie wanted to leave his house and see the world, but he couldn’t for health reasons, whereas Phillip does leave his apartment, but feels lonesome in a crowd”, he explained. “It wasn’t a certainty that he’d take a job at a rental family agency because of his disposition, and it takes him a bit of convincing to get through the door.
“What I think he learns is that he has earnt the right to find connections and a family of his own. He doesn’t take on this job assuming that his paternal instincts would be sparked, but I think he intuitively realises the value of those relationships through his journey.”
In the years prior to Fraser joining the project, Hikari went through endless drafts recharacterising Phillip. One of the earliest iterations of the script was far closer to dark comedy than the emotionally resonant family drama it is now.
“At one stage, he was going to join the Yakuza!” the director laughed. “He was going to be dealing with all sorts of crazy people, and he fell into the rental family role because he couldn’t get any other acting work as he wasn’t good looking enough.
“In another iteration, he started as a pretend butler at a cafe and fell into the job from there. For me, the project evolves each time a new actor’s name is mentioned; the film would be totally different if it didn’t have Brendan.”
As the movie transformed into the heartfelt tale it is now, so did the wider exploration of mental health. The writer/director assures you this isn’t a culturally specific tale, but one with a universal resonance.
“Every culture has a different way to cope with loneliness. In the UK and most of the western world, that’s through therapy, but in Japan, that’s more challenging due to a culture where people don’t want to admit that they have mental health issues.
“It sounds like a weird job on the surface, but I came to understand that a rental family exists so everybody can have somebody there to listen to them. In many ways, they provide the same service as a therapist.
“My hope is that after watching this movie, anybody who has felt stuck feels empowered to take the big step to see what’s out there and find that connection, whilst being aware that they are the ones responsible for making that work. Even if you don’t feel like you’re good enough, remember you are a divine being who is able to achieve anything.”
It’s a message that certainly resonated with her lead actor, who despite being an Oscar winning star beloved by millions, came to terms with the fact he suffers from imposter syndrome whilst making the movie. This role more than any other gave him a newfound self-confidence.
“It's always daunting to chase our dreams in our professional lives”, Fraser continued. “And I’m now big enough to admit that I needed to find ways to confidently assure myself that I am enough, that I’m good at this, that I know what I’m doing.
“If I don’t, I’m going to have the courage to ask for help, which I just didn’t know you could do – now I find that there’s fulfillment in working with someone to solve a problem. Much like the people in this agency, I discovered that I’m one of many people who needs the courage to reach out to people, ask for help, and find company and comfort in that.”
Rental Family is released in UK cinemas on Friday, 17th January.
