In Rental Family, Brendan Fraser stars as an American actor living in Japan who is recruited to work for a company that provides actors to stand in as family members, friends, and more.Entertainment Weekly shares exclusive images from the film, as well as Fraser’s reflections ahead of the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.Fraser hopes the film will provoke more compassion in its audience.
Parents pressuring you to get married? Need a dad to deal with a sexist car salesman? What if you could rent an actor to fill the role?
That’s the concept at the heart of Rental Family, a new film from writer/director Hikari coming to theaters Nov. 21 after it makes its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend. The film stars Oscar winner Brendan Fraser as Phillip Vandarploeug, an ex-pat American actor living in Tokyo.
When his agent lands him a job as a guest at a funeral, he is invited to join a Rental Family company — a service that provides actors to play everything from fake spouses to children who never visit their parents, to absent parents, to even the other woman in a marriage. It sounds off the wall, but it’s based on real companies in Japan.
“Hikari, she and her writing partner, were intrigued by a story that she had read about rental family agencies in Tokyo,” Fraser tells Entertainment Weekly for our Fall Movie Preview. “She looked closer and observed it through the prism of being non-judgmental and coming up with this story of discovering one’s family, no matter where you are, and doing it under the guise of it being a service until it becomes more human and real. She wanted to tell a story about what it really means to have a family. They aren’t necessarily who we’re born into.”
Brendan Fraser and Akira Emoto in ‘Rental Family’.
James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures
The real-life agencies and the one in the film are a response to what Fraser describes as a loneliness epidemic in Japan. “The reality is that there’s an entire demographic of people who are shut away, who shut themselves away and live with their parents, for instance, well into their forties or fifties even,” he says. “lt trickles down through the society, the concerns about who’s raising who and that responsibility, and to whom does it fall upon.”
Fraser went through a similar journey to the one his character experiences in the film, coming to better understand the purpose of “pretending” to be what someone needs in their life.
His character spends most of the film acting in two roles for the rental service: as a journalist interviewing an aging actor who fears the world has forgotten him, and as a father to a school-age girl who needs two parents to get into an elite private school. But as he becomes more enmeshed in their lives, he begins to develop all-too-real bonds.
“Rental Family is a love letter to loneliness,” Fraser reflects. “It’s an elegy to loneliness. Because there’s really no bad guy in the movie. The bad guy is apathy.”
Fraser describes the real rental family services as pragmatic entities with clear pricing structures and boundaries, organizations that meet a real need in Japanese society. “People who lack the social skills, for whichever cultural reasons, have feelings too, but they don’t know how to address or fulfill them necessarily,” he notes. “A service like this really does have a place in that society. It doesn’t sound so daft as it does when you first read the headline or logline of it.”
We don’t learn much about Phillip’s past or why he moved to Tokyo. He’s seen moderate success as the mascot of a toothpaste brand, but is a bit of a lost soul until he throws himself into his work with the agency.Â
“He was welcomed, but he isn’t really ever going to elevate beyond being the toothpaste man,” Fraser says. “I don’t think he’s a very good actor necessarily. I mean, maybe acting isn’t his calling. It’s what he likes to do, and it makes him meet a lot of people, and that’s great. But he doesn’t know what he wants to do until he meets that little kid. It fulfills everything when that relationship becomes a little more authentic.”
Still, Fraser cautions against those who might go into the film expecting a feel-good family drama. “It’s awkward,” he admits. “This film’s prickly in some ways too, as it is lovely, well-intentioned and careful. There are darker turns also. It speaks to gender politics, and ultimately, our need for belonging.”
Mari Yamamoto and Brendan Fraser in ‘Rental Family’.
James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures
Fraser shares the screen predominantly with two actors, Akira Emoto and Shannon Gorman. Emoto, who is himself an acting legend in Japan, portrays Kikuo Hasegawa, a once great screen star who fears he has been forgotten. Fraser calls Emoto the “Japanese Ian McKellen” and likens Kikuo’s story to the one McKellen played out as director James Whale in Fraser’s breakout film, 1998’s Gods and Monsters.
“The steeped respect that Akira commands in Japan was reflected in the locations that we went to,” Fraser says. “The respect and deferential gestures were always prevalent and shared.”
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Gorman has an even more daunting role as Mia Kawasaki, a little girl who is led to believe that Fraser’s Phillip is her father. “Shannon Gorman is a needle in a haystack find,” gushes Fraser. “This young actress is the genuine article. On the first day I worked with her, at the lunch break, I couldn’t help myself, but I had to tell her dad that she’s the best I’ve ever worked with in this age group ever.”
Still, Fraser hopes the real discovery for audiences is director Hikari and her plea for us to treat each other with more compassion.
“I want you to know how unique and special she is,” Fraser reflects of his director. “The importance of her vision as a filmmaker and as an artist is going to find its mark, and it’s going to cause positive changes. I hope this particular film does inspire people to find a way towards accepting one another with a little bit more authenticity.”