Brendan Fraser slams Golden Globes as meaningless ‘hood ornaments’

Brendan Fraser poses with the Best Actor award for "The Whale", at the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles, California, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

Brendan Fraser poses with the Best Actor award for "The Whale", at the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles, California, January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

Published Feb 9, 2023

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

The 54-year-old actor boycotted attending this year’s Globes awards despite being nominated in the best actor category for his role as obese teacher Charlie in “The Whale”. The honours went to Austin Butler for “Elvis”.

Fraser said the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which decides the ceremony’s winners, had brushed off his claims of sexual misconduct by its former president Philip Berk.

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He told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show on Tuesday: “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 2018 he had been groped by Philip 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.

The actor added about his accusation: “It’s my fight, no one else’s. I don’t need everyone to stand in solidarity with me.”

When Howard, 69, asked Fraser if he felt other actors should have taken a stand alongside him by also boycotting the Globes, he replied: “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.”

Philip, 88, was expelled from the HFPA in April 2021, after 44 years and serving eight terms as president, after he emailed members stating Black Lives Matter was a “racist hate movement”.