Brendan Fraser Says He Was Sexually Harassed, Told To Downplay It

LOS ANGELES, CA — In an explosive interview, A-list actor Brendan Fraser alleges he was the victim of a sexual assault and accuses the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of trying to cover it up.

Inspired by the ongoing purge of Hollywood’s sexual harassers, Fraser told GQ magazine the association’s former president Philip Berk groped him in 2003. He claims the association, which puts on the Golden Globes, conducted a secretive investigation of the alleged incident and then tried to make him pretend to the public that it was just a joke gone awry.

He refused to go along, he said.

"It's about being stripped of your identity, and of a power play being pulled to tamp it down, and being sort of backhandedly complicit in it by keeping quiet, entering into an agreement that you won't talk,” he explained to GQ. "I want to find some way to make medicine out of this poison, which is not specific just to this enterprise...There's a system in place that's unwritten. If you abide by it, you will be rewarded. If you don't, you won't be.”

The The HFPA responded to the story Wednesday with a statement defending the handling of the allegations.

“The HFPA continues to stand firmly against sexual harassment. As such, we have always taken Brendan Fraser’s allegations very seriously—both when he originally spoke out in 2003 and now again 15 years later. Back then, after an initial inquiry, we provided Mr. Fraser with the exact redress he sought—an acknowledgement of the transgression and an apology. Mr. Fraser continued to attend HFPA events including the Golden Globes. When Mr. Fraser raised the allegations again this year in the March issue of GQ, adding several previously unknown details, we conducted an internal review and then took it upon ourselves to commission an independent investigation into the matter to ensure impartiality. 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 the exchange was not an intended sexual advance. We want to reiterate that the HFPA understands today—as it did 15 years ago—that what Mr. Fraser experienced was inappropriate.”

According to Fraser, Berk fondled him at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the summer of 2003. Berk denied Fraser’s account, telling GQ it was a quick pinch meant as a joke because Fraser, at the time, was dealing with a gossip item that he had pinched someone.

But Fraser says he didn’t get the joke then and still doesn’t today.

"I felt ill. I felt like a little kid,” he told the magazine. "I felt like someone had thrown invisible paint on me."

Click here for the full GQ article.; Photo: Brendan Fraser attends the For Your Consideration Event for FX's 'Trust' at Saban Media Center on May 11, 2018 in North Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)