Brendan Fraser was moved to tears after 'The Whale' received a 6-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival

• Brendan Fraser broke down in tears after his new film "The Whale" received a standing ovation.
• According to Variety, the six-minute ovation the drama received caused Fraser to get emotional.

Brendan Fraser isn't afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, as evidenced by the actor's heartwarming response to the positive reaction his new drama "The Whale" received at the Venice Film Festival.

According to Variety, Fraser got emotional after the audience at the Sunday night premiere of "The Whale" gave the film and its cast and crew a six-minute-long standing ovation.

The "George of the Jungle" actor reportedly "sobbed" throughout the applause, hugging director Darren Aronofsky several times. Per Variety, Fraser even tried to walk off stage at one point, but the continued applause led him to take yet another bow.

On Reddit, a clip that appears to show Fraser crying during the standing ovation has generated over 70,000 upvotes as of Tuesday morning. In the short video, the teary-eyed actor is shown standing onstage and bowing while audience members clap and cheer for him.

'The Whale' is based on the play of the same name and stars Fraser and Sadie Sink

Playwright Samuel D. Hunter (who also wrote the screenplay for the new film) told Vanity Fair that he was inspired to pen "The Whale" after reading a student's response to a writing prompt while he was teaching at Rutgers.

Fraser plays Charlie, a reclusive English teacher who struggles with life-threatening obesity. As his health crumbles, Charlie tries to repair his relationship with his teenage daughter, played by Sink, and grapples with the loss of his partner.

"I was self-medicating with food, and it was hard for me to live in the world as that person," Hunter said to Vanity Fair. "I'd never seen that story precisely told."

In the same interview, Aronofsky said Fraser was a perfect fit for the role: "I thought about every movie star playing Charlie, and it never made sense or clicked."

And Fraser himself was eager to be "reintroduced" through his work on the film — even though he was required to wear prosthetics and a fat suit he compared to a "straight jacket" in order to portray Charlie.

"I've had such variety, a lot of high highs and low lows, so what I'm keen for, in the second half of my time doing this, is to feel like I'm contributing to the craft and I'm learning from it. This is a prime opportunity. I wanted to disappear into it," the "Mummy" star told Vanity Fair. "My hope was that I would become unrecognizable."

"The Whale" will reportedly be released theatrically on December 9.