The #MeToo hashtag has spawned an entire life of its own. #MeToo is much more than a hashtag, and at this point in its infancy has become far more than just a movement. With prevalent roots in Hollywood, the term #MeToo and the outcry of several individuals has managed to disrupt and destroy the careers of several once powerful Hollywood execs.
This is all thanks to brave actors coming forward with their stories. We have heard from the likes of Uma Thurman, Ashley Judd, Anthony Rapp, and now Brendan Fraser.
Whatever happened to Brendan Fraser?
That is not only the question that has left some of our lips in more recent years but the title of his tell-all interview piece with GQ magazine where he explains what went wrong with his career.
There was once a time when Brendan Fraser was one of Hollywood's most sought-after leading men. Then, somewhere around the mid-2000's, something strange happened. Randomly, the offers for hit movies stopped coming his way despite proving To Be a bankable superstar still.
His last major Hollywood production, "Journey to the Center of the Earth," was a financial and critical hit. And yet, the film's sequel--"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island"--replaced Fraser in the lead role with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. And more recently, he was replaced as the star of "The Mummy" franchise by Tom Cruise.
Fraser contributes his career downfall as an actor on a few things, including the fact that doing his own movie stunts really took a toll on his body.
One big life-changing incident that Fraser notes took a toll on his self-worth as an actor was a traumatic 2003 encounter with the then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk.
What did Philip Berk do to Brendan Fraser?
Fraser recalls in the interview that on his way out of a hotel where HFPA hosted a luncheon, he ran into Philip Berk.
Embracing each other, Fraser goes to shake Berk's hand, but in doing so is answered with a left hand from Berk that grabs Fraser's buttocks and, as Fraser remembers, "one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around."
Fraser recalls that the incident left him instantly in fear and panic. "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 told his then-wife, Afton, about the altercation, but couldn't bring himself to tell anyone else about it out of fear of being humiliated and ridiculed.
Berk recalls the situation differently. In fact, he recounted the incident years earlier in a memoir of his, and it was reported by Sharon Waxman of the New York Times. To Berk, all he did was pinch Fraser on the rear in jest. Anything recounted by Fraser beyond that is "complete fabrication" according to Berk. Although, Berk did say that if he had done anything to make Fraser uncomfortable that day, he apologizes.
