Brendan Fraser Alami Pelecehan Seksual di Hollywood
Rizky Sekar Afrisia , CNN Indonesia | Jumat, 23/02/2018 09:03 WIB
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia -- Brendan Fraser sempat 'menghilang' dari Hollywood. Pada 1990-an sampai awal 2000-an, ia punya segala rupa film. Mulai thriller aksi seperti The Mummy sampai drama seperti The Quiet American. Namun setelah itu ada beberapa tahun di mana ia tak mau muncul. Kini baru ketahuan apa sebabnya. Dalam wawancara mendalam dengan GQ yang dikutip Vanity Fair, Fraser mengaku ia sempat absen dari Hollywood karena tragedi pelecehan seksual . Presiden Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) Philip Berk melecehkannya saat makan siang bersama untuk acara HFPA di Beverly Hills Hotel pada 2003. Aktor 49 tahun itu mengatakan, Berk hendak mengucapkan selamat tinggal padanya saat ia menjauh dari ruangan.
Namun Berk tak sekadar menjabat tangannya. "Tangan kirinya menjangkau ke belakang, meraih bokong saya, dan salah satu jaringan menyentuh tengah selangkangan saya," katanya. Tak berhenti di satu titik, menurut Fraser, Berk menggerak-gerakkan jarinya itu. Ia kaget dan terdiam. "Saya merasakannya. Saya merasa seperti anak kecil. Saya merasa seperti ada bola di tenggorokan saya. Saya pikir saya akan menangis," ia mengungkapkan. Fraser pun langsung keluar dari ruangan dan menemui istrinya saat itu, Afton.
Ia berniat membawa kasus itu ke publik, namun berubah pikiran. Perwakilan sang aktor hanya meminta HFPA menulis permintaan maaf. Berk mengaku menulis itu, namun menolak ia pernah melecehkan Fraser. Tudingan pelecehan itu, menurutnya sangat dibuat-buat. "Permintaan maaf saya mengakui bahwa saya tidak melakukan kesalahan apa pun, permintaan maaf biasa yang menyebut 'jika saya melakukan sesuatu yang membuat Mr. Fraser kesal, saya tidak berniat demikian dan meminta maaf atas itu,'" kata Berk pada GQ . Di sisi lain, Fraser menyebut insiden itu membuatnya merasa 'terkucil.'
"Saya jadi depresi. Saya menyalahkan diri saya sendiri dan saya kacau balau," ujarnya. Apalagi setelah peristiwa pada 2003 itu HFPA tidak lagi mengundangnya ke Golden Globes. "Saya tidak tahu apakah itu karena saya tidak disukai kelompok itu, oleh HFPA. Tapi keheningan itu menyakitkan," tutur Fraser, yang lagi-lagi dibantah oleh Berk. "Karier Fraser yang menurun bukan kesalahan kami," katanya menegaskan.
Baru sekarang Fraser berani mengungkapkannya, setelah melihat gerakan #MeToo. Ia memuji rekan-rekannya sesama artis yang berani bersuara menyampaikan pelecehan seksual yang pernah mereka alami di industri perfilman. "Orang-orang ini punya keberanian untuk mengatakan apa yang saya tidak berani untuk mengatakannya," tuturnya melanjutkan. Sampai saat ini, Fraser mengaku masih ketakutan mengenang kejadian itu. (rsa)
Brendan Fraser has opened up about how a sexual assault by an influential Hollywood figure and years of doing his own stunts virtually destroyed his movie career.
The actor, who was a household name in the 1990s and 2000s with hits such as George of the Jungle and the Mummy franchise, told GQ in a lengthy profile about how there had been a steady decline of acting roles in recent years.
Several factors seem to have contributed including a failing marriage, a growing list of health problems and a spiral into depression.
Fraser, 49, detailed in the profile for the first that he was sexually harassed in 2003 by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk.
Brendan Fraser (pictured, January 2018) is the subject of a new profile in GQ magazine that seeks to explore the reasons why there was a decline in acting roles for the once household name
Fraser, who rose to fame in the 1990s and 2000s with hits such as George of the Jungle (left) and the Mummy franchise (right) speculates that two reasons were the depression he suffered after he was sexually harassed and the breakdown of his body after years of stunts
The alleged incident occurred in 2003 at the Beverly Hills Hotel while they were having lunch.
'His left hand reaches around, grabs my a** cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint,' he told GQ,
'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.'
After immediately leaving the luncheon, Fraser told his wife of the interaction but otherwise remained silent for fear of embarrassment and career damage.
While he did not go public, about the incident he eventually did report it to the HFPA, but their response was clear: Fraser was rarely invited back to the Globes after 2003.
In the article, Berk says he wrote a letter to Fraser about the incident but 'admitted no wrongdoing.'
Fraser said that he became depressed and he started telling himself he deserved what had happened to him.
'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.'
The alleged incident occurred in 2003 at the Beverly Hills Hotel while Fraser (left) was having lunch with the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk (right). Fraser said he became depressed after the incident, but Berk admits no wrongdoing
Fraser also says that the roles he was in took a physical toll on him. His physical prime from 1997's 'George of the Jungle' was fast-fading.
'By the time I did the third Mummy picture in China [in 2008], I was put together with tape and ice...'cause they're small and light and they can fit under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily.'
Eventually the injuries he received while performing his stunts required multiple surgeries:
He needed a lumbar laminectomy, a surgery that removes the back portion of a vertebra in the lower back, to create more room within the spinal canal.
Fraser also says that the roles he was in took a physical toll on him. His physical prime from 1997's 'George of the Jungle' was fast-fading (Left, Fraser in 'Airheads', 1994; and right in 'George of the Jungle', 1997')
He needed multiple back surgeries, a partial knee replacement and vocal cord repair to name a few, Fraser (pictured, December 2016) said he was in and out of hospitals for almost seven years
However, it didn't take and it had to be done again a year later. He underwent a partial knee replacement, more back surgery involving bolting various compressed spinal pads together and even surgery to repair his vocal cords.
Fraser said he was in and out of hospitals for almost seven years.
The actor has been enjoying a minor resurgence on television, with a lauded supporting part in Showtime's 'The Affair' and an upcoming role in FX's 'Trust'.
'Maybe I am over-reacting in terms of what the instance was,' he says about the Berk allegation. 'I just know what my truth is.'
Brendan Fraser alleges ex-Golden Globes president assaulted him
Andrea Mandell | USA TODAY
Brendan Fraser is sharing his own Me Too experience and says a 15-year-old assault may have contributed to the derailment of his career.
In a new interview with GQ, The Mummy star reveals he was groped in 2003 by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The incident happened in public at a summer luncheon held by the HFPA (which hosts the Golden Globes annually). In the midst of a crowded room, Fraser says, Berk reached out to shake the actor's hand, but instead grabbed his butt.
“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 told the magazine, recalling becoming overcome with panic and fear.
Eventually, he was able to remove Berk's hand. “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 says. Fraser went home and told his then-wife, Afton Smith, what happened.
Berk, no longer president of the HFPA but still a member, told GQ Fraser's version of events "is a total fabrication.”
Why didn't Fraser go public? “I didn't want to contend with how that made me feel, or it becoming part of my narrative," he says now. But at the time, his reps did ask the HFPA for a written apology from Berk, and received one, though Berk says his apology admitted no wrongdoing.
People reports in his 2014 memoir With Signs and Wonders: My Journey from Darkest Africa to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, Berk recalled pinching Fraser's butt “in jest.”
The event left Fraser depressed and reclusive, he says, adding that he was rarely invited back to the Globes after 2003.
The actor, 49, who can be seen next month in FX's Getty family drama Trust, says the experience messed with his sense of “who I was and what I was doing.” Work, he says, “withered on the vine for me. In my mind, at least, something had been taken away from me.”
The HFPA responded late Thursday, saying in a statement that the group "stands firmly against sexual harassment and the type of behavior described in this article. Over the years we’ve continued a positive working relationship with Brendan, which includes announcing Golden Globe nominees, attending the ceremony and participating in press conferences. This report includes alleged information that the HFPA was previously unaware of and at this time we are investigating further details surrounding the incident.”
Fraser is not the only male star taking action over assault claims. Terry Crews is suing the Hollywood agent he accused of groping him last year at an industry event.
At the peak of his career, Brendan Fraser was known for his high-flying, physical roles in movies like George of the Jungle and The Mummy. But those stunt-filled movies took a serious toll on his body.
The actor, 49, reflected on those years in a profile with GQ, where he said it was a point in his life where he would take on any acting job he could get.
“I believe I probably was trying too hard, in a way that’s destructive,” Fraser said. “By the time I did the third Mummy picture in China [in 2008] I was put together with tape and ice — just, like, really nerdy and fetishy about ice packs. Screw-cap ice packs and downhill-mountain-biking pads, ’cause they’re small and light and they can fit under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily.”
His injuries led to multiple surgeries, including a laminectomy, a back procedure to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or nerves. But, “the lumbar didn’t take, so they had to do it again a year later,” Fraser said.
Brendan Fraser Jean Claude Dhien/Getty
He also had a partial knee replacement, more back surgeries to bolt compressed spinal pads together, vocal cord repair and other procedures. Fraser said that he essentially spent seven years going in and out of the hospital.
“This is gonna really probably be a little saccharine for you,” Fraser said. “But I felt like the horse from Animal Farm, whose job it was to work and work and work. Orwell wrote a character who was, I think, the proletariat. He worked for the good of the whole, he didn’t ask questions, he didn’t make trouble until it killed him. … I don’t know if I’ve been sent to the glue factory, but I’ve felt like I’ve had to rebuild s— that I’ve built that got knocked down and do it again for the good of everyone. Whether it hurts you or not.”
Fraser said that his injuries were one of the many reasons he distanced himself from the spotlight, along with being sexually harassed by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association [Berk denies the allegation], plus his divorce from actress Afton Smith and his mother’s death from cancer in 2016.
“Going to work — in between being in and out of those hospitals, that wasn’t always possible. So what I’m saying to you sounds, I hope, not like some sort of ‘Hey, I had a boo-boo. I needed to put a Band-Aid on it,’ but more of an account of the reality of what I was walking around in,” Fraser explained.
“I changed houses; I went through a divorce. Some kids were born. I mean, they were born, but they’re growing up. I was going through things that mold and shape you in ways that you’re not ready for until you go through them.”
