CNN
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Brendan Fraser, who has garnered appreciable award buzz for his starring function in subsequent month’s “The Whale,” says sure. he doesn’t plan to attend the upcoming Golden Globes ceremony, citing his “historical past” with the group in a brand new interview.
“I’ve extra historical past with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I’ve respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. No, I can’t take part, “defined the actor in an interview with GQ printed on Wednesday.
Fraser is outwardly referring to 2018 allegations the actor made towards former HFPA president Philip Berk, who he says groped him at an occasion in 2003.
Fraser added to GQ of her resolution: “My mom did not elevate a hypocrite. You can name me many issues, however not that.
In a separate profile to GQ in 2018, Fraser described the encounter with Berk at a Beverly Hills Hotel-hosted luncheon, the place Fraser alleged Berk grabbed his behind and, by his pants, groped him within the space. between his genitals. and his yr.
“I felt sick. I felt like a little bit child,” Fraser stated on the time. “I felt like I had a lump in my throat. I assumed I used to be going to cry.”
Berk denied any wrongdoing and admitted that he pinched Fraser’s butt on the occasion in query, however in his personal interview with GQ, he stated he did it as a joke.
After Fraser’s allegations, the HFPA launched an announcement saying he was “investigating additional particulars concerning the incident” and that he “is strongly against sexual harassment.”
Behind the scenes, Fraser instructed GQ this week that the group lastly got here again to him and proposed to subject a joint assertion that stated, in line with him, “Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the proof helps that it was supposed as a joke and never a sexual advance.”
Fraser says he refused to signal the alleged joint assertion.
CNN has reached out to the HFPA for remark.
When requested for remark Thursday, Berk confirmed {that a} joint assertion had been submitted to Fraser and that it was a abstract of an impartial investigation commissioned by the HFPA. Ultimately, it was launched as a bunch assertion with out Fraser’s co-signature.
Berk additionally reaffirmed his opposition to Fraser’s accusation, calling it “absurd.”
“Not solely would the alleged assault must have taken place in a room full of individuals, but it surely must have been a Marvel superhero to tug off such a feat,” Berk instructed CNN, partly.
“I knew they might shut ranks”, Fraser he instructed GQ. “I knew they might kick the can down the street. I knew they might be forward of historical past. He knew that he definitely had no future with that system because it was.”
Reflecting on why his account might not have made waves, Fraser stated: “I feel it was as a result of it was too prickly or sharp for folks to need to go first and emotionally spend money on the state of affairs.”
After Fraser’s allegations, Berk remained an lively member of the HFPA till final yr, when he was ousted for spreading an article amongst different HFPA members that referred to Black Lives Matter as a “racist hate motion.”
Berk confirmed that it’s at the moment “not affiliated in any manner” with the HFPA.
The Golden Globes, lengthy thought of the run-up to the Oscars, additionally got here underneath hearth final yr after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the affiliation had no black voting members.
In spite of the of the group In makes an attempt to handle the controversy and different moral considerations, NBC reduce broadcast ties with the group, pending the group’s efforts to enact “significant reform.”
The 2022 Golden Globes didn’t air on tv. NBC introduced in September that the present would rerun in 2023, citing the HFPA’s “dedication to continued change.”
When requested if he believed any of the HFPA’s introduced reforms had been translating into actual progress, Fraser was skeptical.
“Not for the time being. Maybe time will inform if they’ll…I do not know what they’ll do,” he instructed GQ this week. “I do not know.”
Following an overwhelmingly constructive reception throughout movie competition season, Fraser is taken into account a shoe-in for a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
In “The Whale,” Fraser performs an overweight, lonely instructor who’s attempting to reconnect together with his teenage daughter Ellie (“Stranger Things'” Sadie Sink).
The movie, directed by Darren Aronofsky, hits theaters December 9.
This story has been up to date to replicate Berk’s response to a request for remark.