Brendan Fraser Will Pass On Golden Globes Invite: ‘My Mother Didn’t Raise A Hypocrite’

Despite the acclaim he might be getting for The Whale, Brendan Fraser has made it abundantly clear which awards show he’ll be skipping, even if he’s nominated.

Fraser told GQ, “I will not participate” in the Golden Globe Awards, the annual show put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” he added pointedly.

The Globes and the Association behind it have been hit with recent controversies including criticism for a lack of black membership, but Fraser has a specific checkered past with it.

The actor said in 2018 that he was sexually assaulted by Phillip Berk, then-President of the Foreign Press Association, in 2003, and that incident paired with health issues and a costly divorce sent him into a lengthy period of depression and career instability. He said his career, “withered on the vine for me. In my mind, at least, something had been taken away from me.”

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While he was still acting through this time, he came back to audiences’ attention in a big way more recently with roles in shows like The Affair, Doom Patrol and his acclaimed performance in The Whale which is considered a frontrunner for the Best Actor Academy Award.

In this recent interview, Fraser also said that the HFPA conducted an internal investigation and then asked him to sign off on a joint public statement that said, “Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the evidence supported that it was intended as a joke and not as a sexual advance,” to which he declined.

He also said that they never shared the results of the internal investigation with him.

In response to Fraser’s interview, the HFPA released an official statement that seemed to double down on this stance though without the more callous language of calling it a joke. “We’ve shared the results of that investigation with Mr. Fraser, and again apologized, but also conveyed our need to abide by the investigation’s finding that it was not an intended sexual advance,” part of the statement read.

Fraser added on why he would decline an invite, “My mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”

The Whale will be released through A24 on December 9. It is the latest feature film from director Darren Aronofsky and is adapted from the Samuel D. Hunter play of the same name, with Hunter penning the screenplay.