Brendan Fraser Says He Was Groped by Former HFPA President

The actor told GQ the alleged incident was one of many reasons why he disappeared from Hollywood.

Brendan Fraser, who has largely stayed out of the public eye in recent years, said in a GQ interview published Thursday that a high-profile man in Hollywood once groped him.

After headlining a series of popular films throughout the ’90s, including “George of the Jungle” and “The Mummy,” Fraser’s star power waned in the next decade following a string of personal and professional challenges.

The actor believes one of the reasons his career hit a standstill was because of an alleged incident with Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the Golden Globes. Fraser told GQ that Berk groped him at a luncheon in 2003.

“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,” Fraser said. “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.”

He added: “I became depressed ... I was blaming myself and I was miserable—because I was saying, ‘This is nothing; this guy reached around and he copped a feel.’”

Fraser later demanded and received a written apology from the organization, but he wasn’t satisfied with it. Berk maintains the interaction was in jest, calling the actor’s version of events a “total fabrication.”

Source: huffingtonpost