Actor Brendan Fraser, best known for ’90s films like George of the Jungle, The Mummy, and Blast from the Past, is currently enjoying a major career renaissance. Fraser was last seen in the Steven Soderbergh ensemble film No Sudden Move and has been on HBO Max’s criminally underrated Doom Patrol for the last two seasons. On top of that, Fraser recently wrapped film as the star of acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, The Whale. Deadline reports that Fraser has been added to another highly anticipated film project, this time from director Martin Scorsese.
Deadline reports that Fraser has joined Killers of the Flower Moon alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemmons. Killers of the Flower Moon will cover the “Reign of Terror,” a horrific string of murders of members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, and the investigation that led to the modern FBI. Fraser will be playing lawyer W.S. Hamilton.
Videos by PopCulture.com
While Fraser was a major leading man in the ’90s and early ’00s, his career was derailed after he was sexually assaulted by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk in 2003. Fraser opened up about the incident in a 2018 interview with GQ. The alleged incident occurred at a 2003 luncheon in the Beverly Hills Hotel. On his way out, he met Berk, whose organization votes on the Golden Globes. Berk reached out to shake The Mummy actor’s hand. He then used his other hand to touch Frasier’s buttocks. “His left hand reaches around, grabs my a– cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around,” Fraser recalled.
Fraser removed Berk’s hand, but felt “ill” and was about to cry. He rushed out of the room. The only person he told at the time was his then-wife, Afton. The actor said he thought about going public, but ultimately did not. His representatives did seek a written apology from Berk and the HFPA. Beck mentioned the incident in his 2014 memoir, but said he only touched Frasier’s backside “in jest.” Beck called Fraser’s version of events a “total fabrication” and admitted he wrote the letter, but told GQ he did not admit any wrongdoing. “My apology admitted no wrongdoing, the usual ‘If I’ve done anything that upset Mr. Fraser, it was not intended and I apologize,’” Beck told the magazine.
Fraser said the HFPA agreed to make sure Beck would never be in the same room as him again. Still, the incident changed him. “I became depressed,” Fraser said. “I was blaming myself and I was miserable — because I was saying, ‘This is nothing; this guy reached around and he copped a feel.’ That summer wore on — and I can’t remember what I went on to work on next.” Although Fraser made more movies after that incident, he said “made me retreat. It made me feel reclusive.” He wondered if the HFPA blacklisted, and said he was rarely invited back to the Golden Globes. After the incident, work “withered on the vine for me. In my mind, at least, something had been taken away from me,” he said.
“Am I still frightened? Absolutely. Do I feel like I need to say something? Absolutely. Have I wanted to many, many times? Absolutely. Have I stopped myself? Absolutely,” Fraser told GQ. “And maybe I am over-reacting in terms of what the instance was. I just know what my truth is. And it’s what I just spoke to you.”
