While he has a very good chance of being nominated for the Golden Globes for his performance in “The Whale” by Darren Aronofsky, Brendan Fraser has already indicated that he will not be attending the ceremony. Here’s why.
The nominations for the 80th Golden Globes ceremony will not be revealed until Monday, December 12. But bets are already rife as to who will be in the running for the prize, often described as “the antechamber of the Oscars”, insofar as it gives a first real trend. And a few names stand out.
Among them, that of Brendan Fraser for his performance in The Whale by Darren Aronofsky, greeted by a long standing ovation at the end of his presentation, in Competition, at the last Venice Film Festival, from which he nevertheless left empty-handed.
While waiting to be fixed, one thing is certain: named or not, Brendan Fraser will not participate in the ceremony. “I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association [qui organise les Golden Globes, ndlr] that I have no respect for her”he explains to GQ. “So I won’t be there. Because of my history with them. And because my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite.”
In 2018, a few months after the revelation of the Weinstein affair which had resulted in the creation of the #MeToo movement and the freedom of speech in Hollywood, Brendan Fraser confessed to having been sexually assaulted by the ex-president of the association, Philip Berk, in 2003. A hand on the buttocks that the culprit had described as a simple joke, a version that the actor had refused to recognize publicly.
And for good reason: Brendan Fraser did not fail to point out that it was after refusing the advances of Philip Berk that the role proposals had become rare for the star of The Mummy and its sequel, thus giving an explanation to his crossing of the desert, from which the series Trust and Doom Patrol, then The Whale, expected in our theaters on March 8, released him.
A24 Movies Brendan Fraser, unrecognizable in “The Whale”
It is therefore for this reason that the actor will not be visible among the nominees, on January 10th. And because his accusations went unanswered: “I knew they were going to sweep it away. That they would ignore this story. I felt I had no future with the system then in place.”
Things have certainly changed since 2021, when revelations relating to questions of ethics and money were put on the table, and Philip Berk was excluded for racist remarks the same year. But the damage was done for those who admit they do not believe in the reforms announced by the association, and the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama may not be there to receive his trophy.