NOMINATIONS for the 2023 Golden Globes are still far away, but Best Actor frontrunner Brendan Fraser has made it clear that he intends to boycott the ceremony.
Fraser is expected to receive a nomination for the category for his dramatic acting role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, a role which garnered him his career-best reviews and a five minute standing ovation after the film was screened at the BFI London Film Festival.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,“ he said bluntly.
“No, I will not participate. My mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”
HFPA is the organisation behind the Golden Globes.
For those that have followed Fraser’s rollercoaster career, it’s obvious why, and for those that do not, the former heartthrob is referring to an incident that occurred in 2003.
In 2018, in a GQ profile, Fraser revealed – among many things – that he was allegedly sexually assaulted by former president and HFPA member Philip Berk.
Berk denied the allegation, while the HFPA claimed their internal investigation showed that the alleged assault was meant to be a “joke” and allegedly never offered an apology.
The incident was traumatic enough to cause Fraser to retreat from Hollywood and the public eye for many years, until his recent career renaissance.
Fraser noted that he's not the only person who has felt wronged by the group, so if the HFPA were to make an apology, “I would expect that it would be something that would be meaningful for them too.”
