Brendan Fraser recalls his biggest culture shock on the set of ‘Rental Family’

Actor Brendan Fraser had never heard of a Japanese ‘rental family’ service before working on the comedy-drama ‘Rental Family’.

“I had no idea there was a place like this. But as it turns out, they’ve been around since the ’80s,” Fraser said, referring to the professional stand-in service that provides customers with actors who can portray family members or friends at weddings and other events and also offers platonic companionship.

“Mental health issues are stigmatized everywhere you go,” said Fraser, the Canadian-American who won a best actor Oscar for his role in the 2022 film “The Whale.”

However, she pointed out that mental health issues are often not addressed in Japan, so she thought a family rental service would serve a purpose there.

In the film, Fraser plays an actor named Phillip Vandarploeug, the only non-Japanese in the “rental family” workplace in Japan, who pretends to be a little girl’s real father to help her get into an elite school.

While Philip is hired by the girl’s mother, the girl – played by Shannon Mahina Gorman – has no idea that an actor has been hired as her temporary father.

Phillip also takes on different roles playing husbands, fathers, best friends and even a reporter for a withered celebrity.

Fraser, who is also an executive producer of the film, speaks basic Japanese in the film. But in real life, his proficiency isn’t even up to that level, he said. While in Japan, she said she used a machine translator and once told a waitress she was on her period instead of ordering a coffee.

“I made the effort,” he said.

Actress Mari Yamamoto, who plays a colleague at the agency, Aiko, said that when her friends and family saw the film at the Tokyo Film Festival, they only heard boos and giggles in the theater – which she took to be a good sign.

“Japanese people don’t scream at a Beyonce concert, so I just have to let you know that it’s really hard to read, so I think a little snort meant it was incredible. That’s how I interpret it,” he added.

“Rental Family,” distributed by Searchlight Pictures, hits theaters Nov. 21.