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Brendan Fraser: HFPA Pushed Me to Call Harassment Claim a ‘Joke’

They wanted him to sign a statement saying he was “inappropriately touched” but it “was intended to be taken as a joke,” he said.

Actor Brendan Fraser spoke out again about his harassment claims against then-Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Philip Berk, telling GQ the organization wanted him to sign off on a joint statement calling the incident a “joke.” Fraser said that the association first refused to let him see the full report from an independent investigator, then pushed him to sign a statement saying Berk’s actions were not a sexual advance—but he refused. “I don't get the joke,” he said. “I'm the only one who would know where I was touched on my body.” Fraser has accused Berk of grabbing and fondling his butt. “I felt like a little kid,” he said. “It's about being stripped of your identity, and of a power play being pulled to tamp it down…” The HFPA responded to Frasers remarks Wednesday, saying that what “Mr. Fraser experienced was inappropriate,” but that the organization stands by the investigation’s determination that the “exchange was not an intended sexual advance.”