Hollywood star Brendan Fraser has disclosed that he won’t be making an appearance at the upcoming Golden Globes award ceremony.
The actor, who has had a long-running feud with the showrunners, said he would be a “hypocrite” if he honored an invitation to the event, which will be held in January 2023.
Fraser now plans to devote his efforts to pushing his recent film feature, “The Whale,” for an Oscar nod and help it gather critical acclaim.
He also stated that he currently does not believe in any of the reforms made by the Golden Globes showrunners.
Read on to learn more.
Brendan Fraser Says He Won’t ‘Participate’
Speaking with GQ Magazine, Fraser said that he would not honor any invitation to the Golden Globes ceremony in January, regardless of whether he is nominated for an award.
The upcoming ceremony, which is one of the most prestigious in Hollywood, is hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and honors excellence in both American and international film and television.
It is expected that Fraser might receive multiple nominations, given his stellar performance as Charlie in the psychological drama film “The Whale;” nevertheless, the actor has stated that he will not be attending due to his strained relationship with the HFPA.
He told the men’s magazine, “I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” before adding. “No, I will not participate.”
Doubling down on his statement, Fraser also remarked, “It’s because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”
Brendan Fraser ‘Felt Ill’
Fraser’s bad blood with the HFPA can be traced back to an incident in 2003 when he attended a luncheon in Beverly Hills. The actor claimed he was sexually assaulted by the then-president of the HFPA, Phillip Berk, at the event.
“His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around,” the “George of the Jungle” star said of the gross ordeal in his 2018 interview with GQ.
He added, “I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry. I felt like someone had thrown invisible paint on me,”
Although Fraser was able to remove Berk’s hand, the memories of the ordeal would stay on, making the actor fall into depression for a while.
HFPA Investigated The Incident
Frazer had gone public with the incident at the time, in the wake of the Me Too movement, when several other celebrities narrated sexual assault ordeals they had faced while working in Hollywood.
After the GQ interview, an investigation was launched into the incident by the HFPA. Ultimately, they concluded that Berk’s actions did not constitute sexual assault but were only inappropriate.
They also proposed to Frazer that they jointly issue a statement that read, ‘the evidence supports that it was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance.” Frazer, at the time, refused to agree and voiced his concerns during another interview with GQ in 2018.
“I don’t get the joke,” he said, adding, “I’m the only one who would know where I was touched on my body.”
Brendan Fraser Focusing On Hyping ‘The Whale’ For An Oscar Nod
Four years have passed since Fraser refused to issue a joint statement that would have canceled his earlier comments on the matter.
In his recent interview with GQ, he claimed that the HFPA did not apologize to him, a claim that the organization has disputed.
The HFPA has since instigated several reforms after having faced backlash from different angles in recent years. When asked if he believed in the reforms, Frazer said, “At the moment, no. Maybe time will tell.”
Fraser now plans to focus entirely on campaigning for “The Whale” to land an Oscar nomination.
He said, “I owe it to myself.” I owe it to the filmmakers. I know I owe it to those fans who paid to come and see me and stand in line in the sun and, you know, all of that. I owe it to my kids. This is my shot.”
