Brendan Fraser learnt Japanese for his new movie Rental Family.
The Mummy star, 56, plays an actor working in Tokyo for a rental family service – a business which allows people to hire actors to pose as relatives or companions - and he's revealed he spent time in the city ahead of the shoot so he could immerse himself in Japanese culture.
In a behind-the-scenes video, Brendan explained: "I love the aspect of making discoveries ... I took the time to come in early enough to feel like I had my own Tokyo story to tell. I spent enough time wandering the streets with my pocket translator trying to talk to anybody ...
"[It was] was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had in my career."
The film's writer/director Hikari went on to reveal the actor took classes to learn Japanese for the role. She said: "Brendan speaks a lot of Japanese in this movie.
"He was like: ‘I’m in.’ So he took classes three or four times a week."
It comes after the actor admitted making the movie helped him confront long-held feelings of insecurity.
Describing the project as a turning point in his relationship with his own self-belief, the Oscar-winning actor opened up during a question and answer session in London following a screening of the film.
Brendan told the audience: “I struggle with insecurity, and to make this film, it reminded me that I’m good enough, and I always was all along. Why am I giving myself such a hard time? It’s there."
Hikari went on to explain the story grew from an unexpected discovery during the pandemic.
She said: “My co-writer Stephen Blahut was randomly looking for a job in Tokyo, and he found a job such as rental family.
"I’m Japanese. I know nothing about the rental family business."
She added: “Pandemic really gave us distance. There’s not really much of a connection in between."
Takehiro Kira, who plays a workaholic struggling with loneliness in the movie, said his performance drew on personal memories of isolation.
He added: “I went to the States when I was 15, and I spent many days, and Christmas nights, sitting all by myself in the room, like Philip [Brendan's charcter] was sitting on the bed. When I saw the film for the first time, that was a scene that made me cry."
Rental Family is due for release in January.
