Actor Brendan Fraser is getting awards buzz for his role as a 600-pound English teacher in “The Whale,” but he’s already told one awards show to buzz off.
In an interview with GQ published Wednesday, Fraser said that he plans to skip the Golden Globes ceremony in January even if he’s nominated for an award.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Fraser said, referring to the organization behind the awards. “No, I will not participate.”
He added:
“It’s because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”
In a 2018 interview with GQ, Fraser accused former HFPA President Philip Berk of sexually assaulting him at a 2003 luncheon in Beverly Hills.
“I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry. I felt like someone had thrown invisible paint on me,” Fraser told the magazine. He said the incident played a major role in his disappearance from the limelight for over a decade.
Berk did reportedly give an apology letter to Fraser, but told GQ it “admitted ‘no wrongdoing’” and was “the usual ‘If I’ve done anything that upset Mr. Fraser, it was not intended and I apologize.’ ”
In this week’s interview, Fraser maintains that the organization never apologized to him (the HFPA denies that), but said if it did attempt to make amends “it would have to be, I don’t know, what’s the word I’m looking for... sincere?”
He added:
“I would want some gesture of making medicine out of poison somehow. I don’t know what that is. But that would be my hope.”
The HFPA did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.