The Fraser boys were looking good in the Big Apple on Monday. Brendan Fraser attended a screening of his new movie, The Whale, at Alice Tully Hall in Manhattan’s Lincoln Center on Nov. 28, along with his sons, Holden Fraser and Leland Fraser. Brendan, 53, sported a dapper dark blue suit, while Holden, 18, opted for a dark blue suede coat, black pants, and a gray turtleneck. The redhead Leland, 16, wore a black jacket and matching pants with a dark-print button-up shirt.
Joining the Fraser boys for this outing was Brendan’s longtime partner, makeup artist Jeanne Moore. Brendan shares his sons, including Griffin Fraser, with actor Afton Smith. He and Afton, 54, were married for ten years, from 1998 to 2008, before going their separate ways. Afton herself appeared in some of the biggest movies of the ‘90s – Less Than Zero, Reality Bites, and Fried Green Tomatoes – before leaving acting to pursue a career as a writer.
Ahead of the release of The Whale — which sees Brendan play Charlie, a 600 lbs. man trying to reconnect with his daughter (Sadie Sink) — he shared how his children informed his performance. “I have three kids of my own. My oldest son Griffin has special needs. He’s autistic. He just turned 20. He’s a big kid. He’s six foot five,” he told Freddie Prinze Jr. in an Interview magazine chat. “He’s got big hands and feet, a big body. I understand intimately what it is to be close to a person who lives with obesity. And because of the beauty of his spectrum—call it a disorder if you will, I disagree with you—he knows nothing of irony.”
“He doesn’t know what cynicism is. You can’t insult him. He can’t insult you. He’s the happiest person and is, in my life and many others’, also the manifestation of love,” continued Fraser. “Being with my kids and their mom and our family has given me such love that if ever I needed to hold something of value up to try and translate that to what was important to Charlie, I didn’t have to look far.”
In 2009, Brendan spoke about how his young sons weren’t aware of what he did for a living. “I tell them I’m going to work,” he said to OK, via People, “and they say, ‘What do you do, daddy?’ ‘Well, I defeat bad guys?’ ‘Wanna take one of my lightsabers?’ [laughs] ‘You know, I want to go work with Han Solo.’ What?! Oh, by the way, I just got hired to work with Harrison Ford. Cool! Look at me, I’m turning into one of my kids. Don’t tell anyone!”
At the time, Brendan was promoting Inkheart and was happy that he made a movie that he could watch along with his young boys. “I know a satisfying experience at the movies with your family is a positive experience,” he said. “There are other films that I’ve made, and when those kids grow a little bit older, then I’ll show them that work or they’ll find it themselves. In the end, I don’t know an actor who idles very well, so I’m happy to keep my hands and feet busy.”