Ancil
Trigger Warning: The following story includes instances of sexual assault
Hollywood’s late 1990s and early 2000s had a name in everyone’s mouth, i.e. Brendan Fraser. But he suddenly disappeared from Hollywood and now we know why.
Brendan Fraser gave some of his best performances in The Mummy and George Of The Jungle which topped the Box Office. But he got off the spotlight real quick and it wasn’t out of his choice. The actor opened up about being ‘blacklisted’ by Hollywood after opening up in 2018 about historic abuse.
The 90s favorite’s career took a hit after he was sexually abused, said Brendan himself. The actor claimed that he was the victim of sexual abuse in Hollywood, alleging that former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), Philip Berk sexually abused him. He alleged that Berk had touched him inappropriately and sexually assaulted him. In an interview with GQ in 2018, Fraser claimed his career ‘withered on a vine’ after he was allegedly groped by Berk at an HFPA luncheon event back in 2003, leaving him feeling ‘miserable’, ‘depressed’, and ‘reclusive’.
The 53-year-old said: “His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around. 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… In my mind, at least, something had been taken away from me.”
Fraser revealed that he did not go to the police at the time because he didn’t want the accusations to become a “part of his narrative.” He added that the alleged encounter “made [him] retreat” from the spotlight and also put forward the argument that offers for major roles from Hollywood studios suddenly ceased to come forward. “I don’t know if this curried disfavour with the group, with the HFPA. But the silence was deafening”, Fraser said.
After opening up about the assault the actor received a written apology but claims he found himself shut out from the HFPA and the Golden Globes awards, leading him to wonder if he’d been blacklisted. Life did not leave Fraser alone. The actor suffered his personal setbacks ahead of all this. Fraser suffered issues with his own health, had a divorce and if that was not enough he lost his mother too.
Keeping all this aside the actor is all set to make his return and fans are most excited. His latest movie, The Whale, sees the actor playing a 600lb man trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter (Sadie Sink of Stranger Things fame) years after he abandoned his family. For the role, Fraser is unrecognizable due to ‘amazing prosthetics’ that have molded Brendan into his 600lb character.
