As reported by Variety, writer Samuel D. Hunter first met director Darren Aronofsky to talk about the possibility of adapting his Off-Broadway play, The Whale, for the screen when the film director was in the middle of editing his 2014 biblical epic, Noah. While the Noah and The Whale couldn’t be more different, Aronofsky declared, “What attracted me so much to Sam’s play is that it makes you feel for someone who a lot of people just want to ignore.” While chatting with Variety, Hunter reflected on his experiences with The Whale and the play’s transformation to the big screen.

Initially, Hunter revealed what inspired him to write The Whale. He said, “It is a very personal story. I started writing the play about 13 years ago now. I was teaching expository writing at Rutgers, and I was desperately trying to connect with these students. These were college freshmen and it was a state requirement, so nobody wanted to be there. They weren’t writing anything that they actually believed in, they were writing things that they thought I wanted to read.”

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Hunter continued, “I got the sense that nobody had ever valued them as autonomous people with opinions and taste. So I said before we get into the essay of it all, try to write something honest. And I got moving responses to that, and one of them ended up in the play and the movie, which was, ‘I think I need to accept that my life is not going to be very exciting.’ I think about the kid who wrote that a lot. And that honesty made me think about writing a play about an expository writing teacher and to personalize it in different ways, one of which was to write about a gay person and also somebody who had a history like I once did of self-medicating with food.”

The writer added, “To be clear, this is not a play about everybody who struggles with obesity. It’s how it presented in me. How depression manifested physically in me. I was at my biggest when I was 20 and coming out of college. I had support in my life. I had parents who loved me and a support system, and I was able to deal with some of my demons and go to therapy and become a healthier person. So the play is writing about a person who didn’t have that support system.”

RELATED: An Emotional Brendan Fraser Wins Best Actor at the Critics’ Choice Awards for The Whale

Samuel D. Hunter Said He Was “Really Excited” About Darren Aronofsky’s Concept for the Adaptation

     A24

Later, Hunter spoke about his thoughts on adapting the play for the screen. He said, “In the beginning we thought about it and tried to consider if there were storylines to explore in this. But it was either the second or third meeting where Darren was like, ‘I think we should keep it in the apartment and maybe make it more of a straight adaptation.’ I was really excited about that. I would have just assumed in doing an adaptation you open it up, but every time I’d think about that it’s like would it be Ellie at school with a kid she has a crush on. It felt like populating this thing with needless items for the sake of visual interest.”

Additionally, Hunter noted the importance of being able to “tap into” the character Charlie and stated that he was “completely relieved” after seeing Brendan Fraser’s portrayal. He said, “I’ve seen so many different actors play this part, and the productions really live or die on whether or not they can tap into Charlie’s love and joy. If the actor does not connect to that through the pain and through the sadness then it doesn’t work. Before we filmed anything, Darren did a reading of the script with Brendan in the East Village. My palms were sweating, because it’s one thing to give this over to a production of a play that will last a few weeks, but it’s quite another to make a movie, which is kind of etched in marble. But a few minutes in, I was completely relieved because Brendan was so effortless and he connected with that joy and love and all the dimensions of the character. You felt it immediately.”