Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen
Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Rick Rycroft-Pool/Getty Images
Days after Rebel Wilson spoke out about Sacha Baron Cohen being an “asshole” who threatened her for mentioning his alleged mistreatment in her upcoming memoir Rebel Rising, People magazine shared an excerpt from the book with the relevant chapter.
The Pitch Perfect star wrote that she and Baron Cohen first met at a dinner party in 2013. He then asked her to appear as his character’s girlfriend, Dawn Grobham, in the 2016 comedy The Brothers Grimsby, which besides starring in, Baron Cohen also co-wrote and produced.
“It felt like every time I’d speak to SBC, he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene, I was like, ‘Ha, I don’t do nudity, Sacha,’” recalled Wilson from her time on set with the multihyphenate.
Wilson wrote that while filming at a soccer stadium in Cape Town, Baron Cohen had a production assistant tell the actress she was needed to film an additional scene. When they were filming it, he allegedly “pulls his pants down…SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my ass.’ And I’m like, ‘What??…No!!’
“I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the ass and improvised a few lines as the character,” added Wilson.
Wilson additionally mentioned that she called her agent and spoke to a lawyer following the scene. “I was encouraged to ‘be professional and finish the film,’” she wrote.
She also claimed that she was asked to do reshoots, including for a sex scene, which made her feel uncomfortable on set. “I filmed the scene, after demanding rewrites. But I still had to simulate having sex with this guy. I still had to kiss him repeatedly,” noted Wilson. She then told producers she would not be doing any promotion for the film.
Wilson additionally wrote, “The movie bombed, which to me was karma enough. I’m not about canceling anybody and that’s not my motivation for sharing this story. I’m sharing my story now because the more women talk about things like this, hopefully the less it happens.”
Baron Cohen denied the actress’ account of their time working together through a statement shared by his rep with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week, shortly after her Instagram Story went up. It 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.”
His team also shared nine anonymous statements with People in support of Baron Cohen. Five of the people, who were identified as being involved in the film and witnessing the Cape Town scene, disputed Wilson’s account.
“As per the script, which Rebel had read and approved in advance, her character was attempting to put a finger in Sacha’s character’s butt. At no point did Sacha actually ask her to put a finger in his butt,” said a producer.
A writer-producer added, “This was a scheduled, scripted scene.”
THR has reached out to reps for Baron Cohen for the statements.
However, Wilson’s sister Liberty and a friend (who remained anonymous) told the magazine that Wilson told them her experience shortly after filming the scene.
On March 23, Wilson had shared in a deleted Instagram Story, “I wrote about an asshole in my book. Now, said asshole is trying to threaten me. He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth.”
A day later, she wrote another Instagram Story, exposing Baron Cohen: “I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The ‘asshole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
