Brendan Fraser traveled all the way to Japan for his new film, “Rental Family.”
The film, which is based in Japan, found the Oscar winner immersing himself in the Japanese language and culture.
While promoting the new heartwarming Hikari-directed film on “Good Morning America” earlier this week, Fraser shared a few phrases he learned while working on the movie.
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He also spoke with “GMA” at the film’s Los Angeles premiere last week about why “Rental Family” was a “dream job.”
“You think, ‘Yay, dream job! I’m going to Tokyo,’ and then I was like, ‘Wait, I got some work to do here,'” he said. “I need to learn how to speak Japanese, I need to do some research — I’ve got actual work — and chase Hikari around, she moves fast!”
James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures – PHOTO: Shannon Gorman and Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family.”
The new film follows Fraser’s character, an actor named Phillip Vandarploeug, who lands an unusual gig at a Japanese “rental family” agency to play a stand-in role for strangers. The job becomes much more when Phillip is tasked with playing the estranged father of a young girl named Mia to help her get into an elite school.
Fraser said Hikari’s story had an “authenticity to it.”
“It doesn’t pretend that it is anything that it isn’t,” he said. “It acknowledges that we need to seek connection with one another, even if it means that you’re going to be, frankly, well, paying for it as a surrogate to stand up for someone who says, ‘I need help, I’m lonesome as a family member.’ I think that’s noble.”
He added, “It touches me in the feels and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures – PHOTO: Shannon Gorman and Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family.”
At the LA premiere, Hikari discussed the concept of rental families as something deeply rooted in Japanese culture and said it was something she’d never heard of until the making of the film.
While addressing the audience before the film’s screening, Hikari said rental families have been around in Japan since the 1980s and added that there are about 300 companies that offer clients with professional actors to portray friends, family members or co-workers at events like weddings.
What Hikari said she learned was that the rental services provided more than a stand-in at events, they provided connection.
“We found this amazing community of people [who] are there for each other, and I thought I just wanted to make it into a story,” she told “GMA.”
James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures – PHOTO: Akira Emoto and Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family.” RENTAL FAMILY.
She added, “It was such a beautiful and interesting character-driven story. This is nothing more than just people connecting to one another through very random or through very interesting occasions, and I thought there’s something beautiful … that I think we could definitely create from it.”
Also starring in the film are “Shōgun” actor Takehiro Hira, “Pachinko” actress Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman and legendary Japanese actor Akira Emoto.
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At its core, Emoto said the film is about the “unchanging universal idea about human loneliness.”
“I feel that modern society goes quite far in understanding loneliness, however, I think loneliness isn’t bad, and that’s something people are still learning, but I hope that that’s a message that people take away from this,” he said.
“Rental Family” is in theaters now.
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