Brendan Fraser, a Hollywood celebrity, claimed his “mother didn’t raise a hypocrite” as he revealed why fans won’t see him at the 2023 Golden Globes awards, despite speculation that he would be nominated for his part in “The Whale.”
The 53-year-old actor discussed his history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Golden Globes, and stated that its response to his sexual assault allegations against its former president and member Philip Berk is the reason he won’t go.
When asked if he would go if invited, Fraser stated, “No, I will not participate. 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.”
In 2018, Fraser said that Berk had grabbed and attacked him over a meal in 2003. The claims were refuted by the organization’s previous president. Fraser stated that the claimed attack “made me retreat” at the moment, and that “something had been taken away from me.”
The actor said after the accusations came out, he heard “from college friends, people I hadn’t worked with or seen going back 30 years of my career.” He said finding out the story had trended on Twitter made him feel like people had seen him “naked.”
“It’s like people know what you look like, they know the story about you,” the “Blast From The Past” star shared, but admitted that in the end, he found telling his story to be “liberating” and a “weight removed.”
The HFPA pledged to look into his accusations. After it was finished, they planned to release a joint statement with Fraser that said, “Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the evidence supports that it was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance.”
Berk, on the other hand, was not removed as a member, and Fraser claimed the previous president assured him he faced “None at all.”
Fraser refused to sign the joint statement and said that he “knew they would kick the can down the road. I knew they would get ahead of the story. I knew that I certainly had no future with that system as it was.”