Brendan Fraser won’t be attending next year’s Golden Globes after accusing Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, of groping him at a lunch in Beverly Hills in 2013.
In an interview with GQ, the Canadian-American actor responded to a question asking him if he would go to the awards if he were to be invited.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Fraser said. “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.”
After confirming the accusation against Berk in a previous GQ interview, Fraser explained how that moment was one of the reasons why he disappeared from Hollywood. Before he secluded himself, Fraser was one of the most popular actors, appearing in box-office hits like The Mummy series and George of the Jungle.
Fraser recalled receiving an apology letter from Berk in 2018 that admitted “no wrongdoing.”
“If the HFPA did attempt to make amends, according to rules of engagement, it would be my responsibility to take a look at it and make a determination at that time, if that became the situation,” Frasier said. “And it would have to be, I don’t know, what’s the word I’m looking for… sincere ? I would want some gesture of making medicine out of poison somehow.”
Fraser is currently promoting his upcoming A24 movie The Whale, where he plays a 270 kg man who tries to rebuild his relationship with his teenage daughter. The movie is slated to release on Dec. 9, 2022.