Rebel Wilson identified Sacha Baron Cohen as the previously unnamed actor she dubbed a “massive asshole” ahead of her Rebel Rising memoir release.
“I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘asshole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sasha Baron Cohen,” Wilson, 44, wrote via Instagram Story on Monday, March 25.
In response to Wilson’s post, a rep for Baron Cohen, 52, released a statement to Us Weekly, which read, “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.”
The Pitch Perfect actress teased earlier this month that she would tell it all in her upcoming memoir, and she’d reveal the star’s moniker for everyone to read.
Her journey, her way! Rebel Wilson has transformed herself since cementing her place as a dynamite presence in the Hollywood film industry. “I took something that was seen as a disadvantage — no one thinks if you’re fat that you’re going to be an actress and everyone’s going to love you — and turned it […]
“Do you wanna know why I have a ‘no assholes’ policy now with people I work with?” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “Well it’s all in the book.” She vowed, “Oh and YES I name the asshole!”
Wilson noted in an attached video that she learned quickly about the “no assholes” policy when she first came to Hollywood.
Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen WireImage (2)
“People were like, ‘I have a no assholes policy, meaning I don’t work with assholes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean that sounds sensible, logical,’” Wilson recalled in the Instagram video. “Then it really sunk in what they were meaning by that: Older people in the industry.”
After working with a “massive asshole” in an unnamed movie, Wilson said she now follows the same policy on every project. “The chapter on said asshole is Chapter 23 [in my memoir]. That guy was a massive asshole,” she reiterated.
Wilson has since claimed she was being harassed by the former costar to stop publication of her Rebel Rising memoir. “I wrote about an asshole in my book. Now, said asshole is trying to threaten me,” she wrote via Instagram Story on Friday, March 22, over a photo of a lilac notepad and a matching pen. “He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers.”
She continued: “He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth. Rebel xoxo.”
While Hollywood may appear to be all glitz and glam on the surface, the industry has seen its fair share of scandals through the years. The New York Times and the New Yorker first published investigative pieces in 2017 that accused disgruntled movie producer Harvey Weinstein of decades of sexual assault and harassment. Soon after, Weinstein stood trial and was […]
Wilson originally accused Baron Cohen of harassment in 2014 after working on The Brothers Grimsby together.
“Sacha is so outrageous. Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny.’ And I’m, like, ‘No!’” Wilson claimed on Australian radio’s Kyle and Jackie O Show. “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.’”
Wilson alleged that while filming the final scene, things got even more uncomfortable. “He was like, ‘Rebel can you just stick your finger up my butt?’ And I went, ‘What do you mean Sacha? That’s not in the script,’” she claimed. “And he’s like, ‘Look, I’ll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it’ll be a really funny bit.’” Baron Cohen, now 52, has never publicly addressed the allegations.
Three years later, Wilson claimed she was a victim of sexual harassment by a “male star,” whom she never identified.
“I’ve been away in a ‘bubble’ of sorts creating new comedy overseas but it’s so hard to hear all these stories relating to sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood,” she wrote in a since-deleted X post in November 2017 referring to the “Me Too” movement, according screenshots from Huffington Post. “As you guys know, I’m a pretty strong and confident person, but even I have a story to tell.”
She recalled: “A male star, in a position of power asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass. All whilst his male ‘friends’ tried to film the incident on their iPhones and laughed. I repeatedly said no and eventually got out of the room.”
After “immediately” calling her agent and making a complaint to the film studio, Wilson claimed she was “threatened by one of the star’s representatives to be nice and support the star.” She called the entire experience “disgusting.”
Celebrity memoir fans received an enormous bounty in 2023, with stars including Britney Spears, Prince Harry and Barbra Streisand dropping books packed with juicy recollections. Harry kicked off the year with his much-discussed memoir, Spare, which included plenty of tea on his royal family members. In one chapter, Harry claimed that he and his brother, […]
Wilson detailed a separate case of alleged harassment with a “big-time” movie director in 2021, telling BBC at the time that the unnamed man claimed he was going to help with her comedy career. “He kept trying to give me more and more alcohol,” she alleged at the time.
The Australian actress recalled overhearing the filmmaker on the phone with his wife who allegedly told her spouse, “You’ve got Rebel in that hotel room, you were going to sleep with her.” Upon hearing that remark, Wilson said she realized something was wrong.
“That was the first time I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what is this? What’s going on?’” she continued, noting she exited the room abruptly before the situation got worse.
Us Weekly has reached out to Baron Cohen’s reps for comment.
Rebel Rising hits bookshelves on Tuesday, April 2.
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