'The Whale' actor Brendan Fraser made an emotional speech to the leading lights in the acting world. The actor, 54, secured the award for Outstanding Performance by a male leading actor in the Darren Aronofsky-directed drama, at the 29th annual ceremony of Screen Actors Guild awards.

Fraser gave a passionate acceptance speech in which he praised SAG for his 'acceptance' back in 1991 and used his speech to spur on fellow actors who may be struggling in the industry adding: "I know how you feel", reports Mirror.co.uk.

Holding out his award from the podium, he told the audience: "I will treasure this, but never more than what I treasured - what I used to keep in my wallet, which was my SAG card that I earned in 1991," he said.

"It made me feel like I belong. As actors we all want to belong to a tribe and that's when I found where I belonged. If you told that guy back then, that I'd be standing here - I would not have believed you."

'The Whale' tells the story of a morbidly obese English teacher, Charlie (Brendon Fraser), as he tries to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink).

As per Mirror.co.uk, the star described his award-winning role as character Charlie as the "the role of my life" and said he related to his character's plight describing a poetic parallel of riding waves on 'a raft of regrets'.

Fraser fought off a tough category which included Austin Butler for 'Elvis', Colin Farrell for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', Bill Nighy for 'Living' and Adam Sandler for 'Hustle'.