"I love Brendan Fraser, [so] I'm very conflicted," the Mean Girls actor, 44, tells PEOPLE of Fraser's role as a gay 600-lb. reclusive writing instructor who is struggling to reconnect with his teenage daughter (Stranger Things star Sadie Sink).
"Seeing him get up so modest in Venice and have that moment, I was very happy for him. He's a lovely man. And it's great. But why? Why go up there and wear a fat suit to play a 400-lb. queer man?"
Franzese goes on to say that "actors like me and my colleagues" would "jump at" the opportunity to star a movie like The Whale, which has awards buzz for Fraser's acclaimed performance.
"To finally have a chance to be in a prestige film that might be award-nominated, where stories about people who look like us are being told? That's the dream," Franzese continues. "So when they go time and time again and cast someone like Brendan Fraser, me and the other big queer guys, we're like, 'What the ... ?' We can't take it!"
Reps for Fraser and the movie's director, Darren Aronofsky, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment Monday.
Franzese tells PEOPLE that Aronofsky "is one of [his] favorite directors," but says, "I would have loved to have read for this. I mean, who knows more about being an obese queer man than an obese queer man?"
"But I guess you can go ahead and wear a fat suit and do what you got to do and get your Oscar. We'll just sit here, waiting," Franzese says.
According to the RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race star, "The biggest problem we have right now in our industry is that people like me and my colleagues can't really sell movies overseas if we are actually queer because the world is homophobic."
"Even if America is ready for a gay person in the lead like that, they have a hard time selling the movie overseas, so they get scared," Franzese says. "But it's going to take risk-takers and real trailblazers to let us cut our teeth in these roles as actors so we, too, can have a shot at a full career in Hollywood."
