Brendan Fraser Says Streaming Forces Actors to ‘Up Your Game’ and Choose Films ‘More Carefully’ Because Viewers Can Just Hit Skip: ‘I Welcome That Challenge’

Brendan Fraser is making the rounds to promote his new film, the theatrically-bound “Rental Family,” which is set to be released by Searchlight Pictures on Nov. 21. During an interview at Variety‘s TIFF studio alongside the film’s director and co-writer, Hikari, the actor admitted that the rise of streaming has lit an extra fire under him to choose winning projects.

“Audiences are more focused and have the option to skip to the next if they wish,” he said. “I welcome that as a challenge. It means you have to up your game and choose more carefully, be better.”

Fraser said that “Rental Family,” which has its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 6, was an easy choice because it was so different from any other projects out there. The actor plays Philip, a working actor in Japan who soon takes work as a professional surrogate to help people who are grieving.

“It was so far removed from anything that I had seen at all,” he said of the project. “It was to be shot in Japan, Tokyo and other parts, the nature of the story, being an unusual way to fulfill the needs that people have who are bereft of family. It seemed like a film without a villain, per se, apart from apathy, and that speaks to us at this time.”

In other Fraser news, the actor revealed that he keeps his best actor Oscar for “The Whale” on “a shelf next to the fireplace. If anybody wants to break in and steal it…”

He also revealed that, “There are several scratches on it because I wear a thumb ring and the night I was given it I was so tense…”

Watch the video below to see Fraser’s thoughts on theatrical vs. streaming.

Watch the second video below to see Fraser talking about where he keeps his Oscar.