The Golden Globes have gone a long season without going through their best moment. After harsh accusations about the lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and reactions from industry titans like Tom Cruise — who returned his four statuettes in a gesture of rejection of the HFPA —, NBCUniversal decided to break relations with the organization and cancel the broadcast of the 2022 gala.
The Balloons against the ropes (again)
One year after the debacle, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is already warming up for the Return of the Golden Globes to NBC on January 10, 2023. A return that has already begun to generate reactions like that of Brendan Fraser, a firm candidate to participate in the fight for the best actor award.
In an interview with GQ, the protagonist of the celebrated ‘The Whale’ has made it clear that has no intention of serving to the balloon delivery ceremony.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I respect the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. No, I’m not going to participate. It’s because of the experience I’ve had with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me many things, but not that”.
To understand the story to which Fraser refers, we must go back to the year 2018, when testified that he was groped and assaulted by former HFPA member and president Philip Berk at an event in 2003. Faced with this, the Association proposed to the interpreter to issue a joint statement with the following content:
“While it has been found that Mr Berk inappropriately touched Mr Fraser, the evidence supports that it should have been interpreted as a joke and not a sexual advance.”
Of course, Fraser refused to sign the letter, and Berk remained with the HFPA until his dismissal in April 2021 after the first criticisms of the alleged racism of the organization began to circulate. Now it only remains to be seen if more voices will join that of a Brendan Fraser who is living a well-deserved second cinematographic youth, endangering some Golden Globes 2023 that could be a point of no return.