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Brendan Fraser leads Rental Family, the new movie from director HikariPEOPLE has an exclusive behind-the-scenes look featuring interviews with the filmmaking team about filming in JapanFraser recalls the “eye-opening” experience of “wandering the streets” of Tokyo to immerse himself in the culture
Brendan Fraser immersed himself like never before for his new movie Rental Family.
From Japanese writer-director Hikari, the film is the tale of an American actor played by Fraser, 56, employed in Tokyo in a rental family service that inserts him into ordinary people’s lives.
The movie, costarring Mari Yamamoto, Takehiro Hira, Shannon Mahina Gorman and Akira Emoto, has earned festival awards and critical buzz since its September premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
“I love the aspect of making discoveries,” says Fraser in a new behind-the-scenes video shared exclusively with PEOPLE.
That goes for Phillip Vandarploeug, the fish out of water he plays in Rental Family, and for the Oscar winner himself in Japan. “I took the time to come in early enough to feel like I had my own Tokyo story to tell,” he shares. “I spent enough time wandering the streets with my pocket translator trying to talk to anybody.”
Doing so, Fraser recalls, “was one of the most eye-opening experiences I’ve had in my career.”
Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family”.
Searchlight Pictures
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“Brendan speaks a lot of Japanese in this movie,” explains Hikari as the featurette shows footage of Fraser practicing the language in and out of character. “He was like, ‘I’m in.’ So he took classes three or four times a week.”
The actor then “brought vulnerability to his performance,” adds the filmmaker, who co-wrote the script with Stephen Blahut. “I was looking for that perfect actor to play the role of Philip. I’ve always been a big fan of Brendan. I mean, who isn’t?”
Brendan Fraser in “Rental Family”.
Searchlight Pictures
“He’s exactly what you hope he’d be,” says Yamamoto, 39, of her costar in the video. “Kind and generous to everybody. Acting with him is like really knowing somebody is going to catch you when you fall.”
Fraser’s hope for Rental Family audiences, he concludes in his behind-the-scenes interview, “is that it will change you a little bit, that it will warm your heart. It will make you feel like family is really who we include, rather than who we are assigned to.”
Rental Family is in theaters Nov. 21.
AloJapan.com