NEED TO KNOW
Searchlight Pictures release the trailer for Rental Family on Tuesday, Aug. 5
The film stars Brendan Fraser as an actor who “lands an unusual gig” in Tokyo, “working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ agency,” according to a synopsis
Rental Family marks Fraser’s first starring movie role since 2022’s The Whale, which nabbed him his first Academy Award
Brendan Fraser is lighting up the big screen again in Rental Family.
Searchlight Pictures released a trailer on Tuesday, Aug. 5, for the upcoming Hikari-directed dramedy, which takes place in Tokyo and “follows an American actor (Fraser, 56) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers,” per an official synopsis.
“As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality,” the synopsis adds. “Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging and the quiet beauty of human connection.”
The trailer opens with Fraser’s character being shown performing in a series of over-the-top costumes, clearly miserable as he hopes for a different type of acting gig to come his way — only to be give the opportunity to “sell emotion,” in the form of “playing roles in clients’ lives” to “help them connect to what’s missing.”
“I’m just an actor. I don’t know how to help people,” Fraser’s character says, before he is told the agency needs “a token white guy” for the job.
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While he is originally hesitant about the idea, Fraser’s character eventually steps in as a father figure to a girl named Mia — which begins with a tense first meeting, but evolves into something bigger.
“Well, this is amazing,” Fraser’s character says as he and Mia tour an aquarium-inspired art exhibit, to which she responds, “It’s cool … but it’s fake.”
“You know, sometimes it’s okay to pretend,” he tells her.
Aside from Fraser, Rental Family’s cast includes Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, Shannon Gorman and Akira Emoto. The film was written by director Hikari and Stephen Blahut, and produced by Hikari plus Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev and Shin Yamaguchi.
The movie will have its premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, and marks Fraser’s first starring film role since 2022’s The Whale — which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, his first Oscar.
“I started in this business 30 years ago, and things, they didn’t come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t appreciate at the time until it stopped,” he said during his acceptance speech. “And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgment.”
Searchlight Pictures
Mari Yamamoto and Brendan Fraser in Rental Family (2025)
Since then, The Mummy franchise alum has had supporting roles in the movies Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and Brothers (2024).
Fraser will next appear in the film Pressure, playing former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Assassination, which will chronicle the murder of John F. Kennedy.
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Rental Family is in theaters Nov. 21.
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