It’s been predicted that Brendan Fraser will take the Best Actor Oscar, and not Colin Farrell. The reason, I’ve been reminded, was stated by Michael Keaton during a 2015 visit to The David Letterman Show**: “Illness always wins.”
To which I replied, “How is turning yourself into a 600-pound sea lion an illness?” I was told I was mistaken, that an eating disorder is an illness. “Is anorexia an illness?,” the opposition said. “If so, then so is eating yourself to death.”
“Neither are actual illnesses,” I argued. “They’re psychological or emotional conditions rooted in an abusive history or some other psychological affliction. They’re certainly not illnesses like cancer or lupus or coronary artery disease or diabetes or what-have-you.”
It was pointed out that many in the medical community would argue that Fraser’s condition is an illness, regardless if it is psych-rooted
Farrell, I was told, is the Bob Hoskins of this year’s race. In 1986 Hoskins won just about every award for Mona Lisa. He was also a lock to win the Oscar. Except he wasn’t. Paul Newman won for The Color of Money. Newman had won the NBR award, and Hoskins had won everything else. It didn’t matter.
HE retort: “But Newman wasn’t playing a guy with an illness — he was playing Eddie Felson, an ex-pool shark. Plus Newman didn’t refuse to attend the Golden Globes because the HFPA official had touched his ass and briefly fingered his anus.”
You don’t understand Academy voter psychology, I was told. “Fraser’s touching performance and the comeback narrative is too good for the Academy to not give him the Oscar,” he said.
Nope, I replied. Fraser the actor is too much of a whineybaby. And as miserable as his morbidly obese character is, you can’t call him a victim of an illness. Not really.
** Go to the 13-minute mark.