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Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, US News
Rachel Lang
Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, US News
Brendan Fraser was the Hollywood hunk in the late '90s and the early 2000s.
His rising star left many of his adoring fans confused when he seemed to just vanish one day.
But it turns out that The Mummy star had an incredibly good reason to step out of the limelight.
Fraser previously claimed his career 'withered on a vine' after he was allegedly groped by former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) Philip Berk at an event in 2003.
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He's said this moment left him feeling 'miserable', 'depressed' and 'reclusive'.
The father-of-three sat down with the Lee Cowan on CBS Sunday Morning to reveal it was the #MeToo movement that spurred him into action.
Fraser said he had 'played by the rules' in Hollywood, but once Berk allegedly assailed him, things were put into perspective.
"I spoke up because I saw so many of my friends and colleagues who at that time were bravely emerging to speak their truth power," Fraser said.
"And I had something to say, too."
Fraser told Cowan that after the alleged assault, which Berk has fervently denied, he just 'needed the music to stop', so he underwent his Hollywood hiatus.
"We can put actors on pedestals and then knock them off so quickly and so easily," Fraser said. "It's almost like that's the game. So I just got rid of the pedestal. I just wanted to be myself."
Fraser has previously detailed the alleged assault by Berk and how traumatising it was for him.
In his GQ interview he said: "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. 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... In my mind, at least, something had been taken away from me.
"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.
However, the actor is coming back strong, with his newest film set to release in a few days.
The Whale sees him play a 272kg man trying to rekindle a relationship with his teenage daughter years after he abandoned her.
Fraser's comeback film is set for release in the US on December 9 and 3 February next year for the UK.