Though rumored to be nominated for a Golden Globe award thanks to his role in “The Whale,” Hollywood star and internet favorite Brendan Fraser said fans wouldn’t see him at that awards show, explaining why by saying “my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite.”
Elaborating on that, the actor said that the response of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group which puts on the Golden Globes, to his claims of sexual assault against Philip Berk, its former president, is why he’s refusing to attend.
Speaking on that point, Fraser said:
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 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.”
As background, Fraser said back in 2018 that Berk groped and hurt him at a lunch in 2003, claims which Berk denied. Fraser said that the alleged attack at the time “made me retreat” and made him feel like “something had been taken away from me.”
Speaking on what happened after people heard of the accusations and contacted him for the first time in decades because of them, Fraser said “It’s like people know what you look like, they know your story.”
He also said, however, that telling his story was “freeing” and like a weight was lifted in the end.
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The HFPA looked into the claims, and, according to Fraser, wanted to release a statement after the investigation saying that, “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.”
But Berk wasn’t kicked out of the club, and Fraser said that the club’s former president told him that he wouldn’t get in trouble over the incident at all.
Fraser refused to sign the joint statement because 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.”
But while sexual assault wouldn’t get Berk kicked out of the HFPA, wrongthink would: Berk was kicked out of the group in 2021 after he shared a piece that called Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement.”
In any case, Berk won’t be attending the Golden Globes because he’s not a hypocrite and doesn’t want to support the organization that refused to punish someone for sexually assaulting him.
While that’s too bad, as the beloved actor’s performance in “The Whale” was widely acclaimed, it’s unlikely people who don’t see this story will notice: people just don’t watch the Golden Globes anymore, with ratings for the ceremony in 2021 plummeting and the 2022 Golden Globes not even being televised.