LOS ANGELES • In a 2014 memoir, Mr Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hosts the Golden Globes, recalled an incident where he pinched actor Brendan Fraser's backside "in jest".

But Fraser, star of films such as The Mummy (1999) and George Of The Jungle (1997), said the encounter left him feeling "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 GQ magazine in a story published on Thursday.

The incident took place at a HFPA luncheon in 2003, when Mr Berk shook his hand, he said. That was also when Mr Berk touched him inappropriately, he added.

Fraser, 49, said the incident was partly why he retreated from the entertainment scene in the mid-2000s.

The experience "made me retreat, it made me feel reclusive", he noted.

Fraser was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1990s and early 2000s, but went on to do bit roles. He has been making his comeback in recent months.

Last year, he played domineering prison guard John Gunther in the television drama The Affair.

Next month, he will be seen in a starring role in the TV series Trust, a period drama that revolves around the abduction in Italy of John Paul Getty III, the then heir to Getty Oil.