Brendan Fraser was canceled before cancel culture was even a thing.
Before you go crazy on the defense mode and say, that's completely not true, it kind of is, though, when you think about it. He was just canceled in a different way than we're used to. He didn't do something unsavory to earn hefty backlash from fans. But he was involved in a scandalous situation with a higher-up in Hollywood, which resulted in more higher-ups blaming him for not being able to take a "joke."
This, paired with some severe health issues and tons of surgeries, resulted in Fraser's hiatus from Hollywood and ultimately the loss of most of his net worth. He didn't completely quit acting, though; his career just cooled down after all of this craziness.
Since Fraser's career was snatched from him by multiple forces, fans have become extremely protective of him. They don't think he's been treated fairly in the slightest and want him to return to his former glory. Here's what fans have to say about Fraser being "canceled."
The Multiple Forces That Damaged Fraser's Career
The trouble for Fraser started when his body began to wear down from the constant stunts he was doing for films like The Mummy. He told GQ that by the time the third Mummy film came in 2008, he was put together by tape.
"I was put together with tape and ice—just, like, really nerdy and fetishy about ice packs," he said. "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."
Eventually, it all added up, and Fraser didn't have any more tape. He needed serious surgery. "I needed a laminectomy. And the lumbar didn't take, so they had to do it again a year later," he said.
GQ wrote that Fraser needed "a partial knee replacement. Some more work on his back, bolting various compressed spinal pads together," and even vocal cord surgery. So he "was in and out of hospitals for almost seven years."
"I felt like the horse from Animal Farm, whose job it was to work and work and work," Fraser said. He also said he doesn't know if he's 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."
He's probably alluding to his second setback; his abuse scandal. It all started in 2003, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, at an event held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who hold the Golden Globes.
On his way out, Fraser was approached by Philip Berk, a former president of the HFPA. Berk went to shake Fraser's hand, and as he did, he pinched Fraser's butt. According to Berk and the rest of the HFPA, who backed him up, it was just a joke. But that's not how Fraser saw it. Berk didn't just touch his butt; he sexually assaulted him.
"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 said. Fraser kept silent about it until the GQ profile because of how it made him feel, and with how the HFPA handled the situation, that's not hard to understand. He became depressed and numbly went back to work, but eventually, it "made me retreat. It made me feel reclusive."
Did he wonder if the HFPA blacklisted him? "I don't know if this curried disfavor with the group, with the HFPA. But the silence was deafening," he said. Berk wrote in his memoir, "His career declined through no fault of ours."
The damage was done because he no longer had any sense of "who I was and what I was doing." GQ writes this is the last piece of the puzzle as to why Brendan Fraser disappeared. This came out during the #MeToo Movement, and still, Hollywood denied Fraser's allegations when they were hearing everyone else's.
Fans Want Him Back...And So Do The Filmmakers
One avid Fraser fan tweeted it perfectly, "Brendan Fraser's career didn't fizzle; it was sabotaged after he was sexually assaulted by a Golden Globe bigwig." There's an overwhelming sense of support for Fraser online.
For some reason, the actor was trending this past March 28, and while many people didn't know why, they still took time to upload their Brendan Fraser appreciation posts. One person wrote, "Can we make this Brendan Fraser appreciation an every day thing?"
"I hope Brendan Fraser is feeling all the Twitter love and respect today," another commented. At the same time, another wrote, "I hear it’s a Brendan Fraser appreciation type day and I’m here to say that he is a sweet cinnamon bun of a man and the treatment he received due to his unwillingness to stand down from his sexual assault story is criminal. He deserved and deserves better."
"He was so unfairly treated by media and Hollywood just because he talked about Hollywood abuse. I hope he makes a big comeback now that people believe how right he was," another fan wrote.
Everyone loves him still and wants him back, including filmmakers. One of the reasons why Danny Boyle cast Fraser in Trust was because it was just good to see him again.
"It's one of those delicious moments where you see someone you're so familiar with who is so changed by time and by experience. You kind of just clock that, and it's both so sad and wonderful. Because we all share that same timeline," Boyle said.
Sarah Treem, the co-creator and executive producer of The Affair, said the same thing. He had that "star quality" they were looking for.
We hope Fraser knows how much we all love him, filmmakers and fans alike, and that he continues to act. All we know is that there are probably many fans who are happy there won't be any Golden Globes next year.