Brendan Fraser did not attend this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, despite his Best Actor nomination for “The Whale,” and says he wouldn’t have wanted the trophy even if he had won.
The “Doom Patrol” star also had nothing but praise for Austin Butler, who took home the Golden Globe for his turn as the King of Rock and Roll in “Elvis,” during an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” where he spoke candidly about his history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
This year’s event marked a return to NBC after the network dropped the beleaguered HFPA following the reveal that it had no Black members. Fraser’s allegations date back much further and are much more personal.
In fact, Fraser has asserted on several occasions that it was his claims that led to this “comeback” performance in “The Whale,” as he believes accusing Philip Berk, then-president of the HFPA, of sexual assault led to him getting blacklisted in Hollywood.
Fraser claimed that Berk groped him inappropriately during a luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Berk has maintained his adamant denial that anything happened. He was expelled from the HFPA in 2021 after he called Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement” to members in an email.
Because of the alleged incident and his prickly relationship with the HFPA, Fraser told Stern he wondered if his recognition for “The Whale” was perhaps a “cynical nomination,” as captured by People.
“I couldn’t really tell because of my history with them and that I still have yet to see the results from their reformation,” he said. “We all are still awaiting that, to tell you the truth.”
After the HFPA was hit with claims that it showed racial bias in its nominations and lacked diversity and representation in its body, the organization has pledged to improve in all areas. They have diversified and expanded their membership, and even more so their voting body, and have expressed that there is more work ongoing.
For Fraser, though, none of that really matters. His disdain for the organization is so much more than their latest controversies. “Get it or don’t get it, doesn’t matter,” he said. “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,” the actor continued. “Because it wouldn’t be meaningful to me. Where am I gonna put that hood ornament? What would I do with that?”
When Stern asked him if he thought other celebrities should have joined him in a more formal boycott of the Globes over his allegations, Fraser said, “It’s my fight, no one else’s.”
As for why he didn’t attend despite getting nominated, Fraser said it was really quite simple. “My mother didn’t raise a hypocrite,” he told Stern. “I didn’t want to sit and feel like I really don’t know if I want this.”
Rather than a nomination or even a win, Fraser would much prefer the organization try to make it right between them. “It would be meaningful — if they wanted to make amends — to issue an apology that made sense,” he said.
At the same time, though, he said it’s ultimately not that important to him. He also acknowledged that he was pleased with the Globes for putting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “front and center” in the broadcast, which he called a “powerful statement” and something he could get behind.
Fraser won the Critics Choice Award and is a frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar for his powerful performance as a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his daughter in “The Whale.” He said that he intends to attend the Academy Awards on March 12.
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