Brendan Fraser Slams Golden Globes As Meaningless "Hood Ornaments": "What Would I Do With It?" - 8days Skip to main content

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Brendan Fraser Slams Golden Globes As Meaningless "Hood Ornaments": "What Would I Do With It?"

Brendan Fraser is not a fan of the Golden Globes and the folks behind it. 

Brendan Fraser Slams Golden Globes As Meaningless "Hood Ornaments": "What Would I Do With It?"

Brendan Fraser has slammed Golden Globes as meaningless “hood ornaments” he doesn’t want.

The 54-year-old actor was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his role as obese teacher Charlier in The Whale, but boycotted this year's ceremony over a groping incident involving Philip Berk, the former president and member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assocation in 2003. Austin Butler won the award for Elvis.

Speaking to Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday (Feb 7), Fraser said, “I found myself wondering, ‘Is this a cynical nomination?’

“I couldn’t really tell because of my history with them and that I still have yet to see the results from their reformation. We all are still awaiting that, to tell you the truth.

“Get it or don’t get it — doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it would mean nothing to me.

“I don’t want it. I didn’t ask to be considered even, that was presumed. I know that would displease many people for lots of reasons, but... they needed me, I didn’t need them.

“Because it wouldn’t be meaningful to me. Where am I gonna put that hood ornament? What would I do with that?”

Fraser alleged in a 2018 GQ interview he had been groped by Berk at a 2003 Beverly Hills lunch, which the ex-HFPA president denied and branded a “total fabrication”.

As a result, the actor is convinced he was blacklisted by Hollywood.

After that GQ story came out, the HFPA issued a statement that "it stands firmly against sexual harrassment." But, according to Fraser, the HFPA wanted him to co-sign a joint statement that read, "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."

Fraser did not sign the statement. 

 "It would be meaningful — if they wanted to make amends — to issue an apology that made sense ... that they share the investigation that they did into me and my family and my friends," Fraser told Stern. "I never saw the result of that report. They wouldn't give it to me, they said no it's ours. So whatever's in it they don't want me to read it. Instead I was given a press release that said it was a joke."

When Stern asked Fraser if he felt other actors should have taken a stand alongside him by also boycotting the Globes, he replied: “It’s my fight, no one else’s. I don’t need everyone to stand in solidarity with me...Maybe.

“Maybe. But, you know, it would be a leap of faith for whoever that would be. It would be a calculated risk and it could also be trivialised very easily by the cynical view of this all.”

Berk, now 89, was expelled from the HFPA in April 2021, after 44 years and serving eight terms as president after he e-mailed members stating Black Lives Matter was a “racist hate movement”.

Fraser is up for Best Actor at next month's Oscars, which he will be attending. 

The Whale (M18) is in cinemas now. — BANG SHOWBIZ

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos

Watch exclusive 8 DAYS interviews on meWATCH and Mediacorp YouTube Channel.

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