A new feud has been brewing in the industry between Australian actress Rebel Wilson and British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The actress had mentioned earlier this week that she would be dedicating a chapter in her memoir Rebel Rising to a ‘massive a*shole’ that she had worked with. Now, Wilson revealed that the a*shole in question was Baron Cohen.
Wilson also revealed that the Borat star’s PR manager and crisis team were harassing her to remove the chapter from the book and that she would not back down. Cohen’s team gave out a statement that the claims made by Wilson were false and that they had ‘detailed evidence’. Wilson and Baron Cohen starred in the 2016 film Grimsby.
Rebel Wilson Reveals Sacha Baron Cohen As The ‘A*shole’ In Her Memoir
Australian actress Rebel Wilson recently unveiled her memoir Rebel Rising, which details her childhood, rise to fame, and her relationship with weight and food. The book is set to be released on April 2 and reportedly also talks about her experiences in the film industry. She particularly mentioned one chapter in the book dedicated to one troublesome actor.
In an Instagram post on her profile, Rebel Wilson mentioned that many veteran actors had spoken about having a ‘no a*sholes’ policy when it came to working with other people. She said that while she found it sensible at the time, it really hit her when she had her own experience with an ‘a*shole’. She said,
“When I first came to Hollywood, people were like, yeah, ‘I have a no-a*shole policy, [it] means like, yeah, I don’t work with a*sholes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical.’ But then it sunk in [what they, the older people in the industry, meant] because I worked with a massive a*shole and yeah, now I definitely have a no-a*sholes policy.”
The actress mentioned that her experience with the said troublesome actor would be detailed in chapter twenty-three of her book. A little later, Wilson took to Instagram to mention that she was being harassed by her former co-worker’s PR team to stop the book from coming out. “I wrote about an a*shole in my book. Now, said a*shole is trying to threaten me” (via US Weekly).
Over the weekend, Wilson revealed that the a*shole in question was Borat star Sacha Boren Cohen. The two had worked together in the spy comedy Grimsby (The Brothers Grimsby in North America). She said on her Instagram,
“I will not be bullied or silenced with high-priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The ‘a*shole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.”
She claimed that Baron Cohen’s team of PR managers and lawyers had been harassing her to stop her from writing about him but that the truth would come out eventually.
Rebel Wilson’s Memoir Talks About Her Experience With Sacha Baron Cohen
Rebel Wilson had previously detailed her experience on the sets of Grimsby, which starred Sacha Baron Cohen in the lead role. The actress, who played The Dictator star’s girlfriend and the mother of his eleven children in the film, mentioned that he would often try to convince her to go n*de in scenes, saying that it would be funny.
Wilson spoke out about the incident while appearing on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show (via The Courier Mail). She said back in 2014,
“Sacha is so outrageous. Every single day he’s like, ‘Rebel, can you just go naked in this scene?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ Sacha and I have the same agent in America and I’m like, ‘Sacha, I’m going to call our agent Sharon and tell her how much you are harassing me. Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny. Remember in Borat when I did that naked scene? It was hilarious.’”
Wilson mentioned that after she refused to perform the scene, the actor got a body double to do it. However, Baron Cohen threw a curveball by asking her to ‘stick her finger up his b*tt’ during the scene, saying that it would be a funny bit. Wilson claimed that she compromised with a ‘spank’ as she did not want to be a diva.
While Wilson seems to be in an all-out attack mode against Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor’s team has denied all allegations and put out a statement saying that they had evidence that contradicted her claims. The statement said (via The Hollywood Reporter),
“While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during, and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”
As the memoir gets closer to its release date, Rebel Wilson does not seem to be slowing down. The actress mentioned that she would not back down and even dedicated the book to all the people who have been branded as a ‘non-conformist’ (via Instagram).
