Australian actress Rebel Wilson dropped a pretty big Hollywood bombshell on Monday by revealing the star she has previously called a “massive a–hole” and is devoting an entire chapter to in her upcoming memoir, Rebel Rising, is none other than Borat and Bruno creator Sacha Baron Cohen.
Wilson took to her Instagram Story on Monday with the message, “I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers.”
She then continued, “The ‘a–hole' that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
The outing was in response to previous references Wilson had made online to a “massive a–hole” she had once worked with who she was planning to talk about in her memoir. She elaborated at the time that the unidentified star had hired a crisis PR team and began sending her threats in response to the news that she would devote a whole chapter to him in her book exposing his bad behavior.
“Now the a–hole is trying to threaten me,” Wilson said in an older Instagram post. “He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He’s trying to stop press coming out about my new book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth.”
On March 15, Wilson said in another Instagram post, “When I first came to Hollywood, people were like, yeah, ‘I have a no a–hole policy, means like, yeah, I don’t work with a–holes.' I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical. But then it really sunk in because I worked with a massive a–hole and yeah, now I definitely have a no a–holes policy.”
Revealing Sacha Baron Cohen as the a–hole in question certainly represents an escalation in the feud.
What is Sacha Baron Cohen alleged to have said or done to Rebel Wilson?
Baron Cohen and Wilson starred together in the forgettable 2016 action/comedy The Brothers Grimsby. As for what Baron Cohen is alleged to have done to earn the “massive a–hole” moniker, Wilson's book has yet to be released so it hasn't been revealed — although a radio interview she did in 2014 certainly sheds some light on the proceedings.
According to reporting in Variety, Wilson suggested in that radio interview that Baron Cohen had pressured her to “go naked” for a scene in The Brothers Grimsby.
“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 explained. “On the last day, I thought I’d obviously won the argument and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”
However, Wilson elaborates that when it actually came time to shoot the final scene, Baron Cohen asked her to, “Stick your finger up my butt.” Wilson says she pointed out to Cohen that this wasn't in the script, but he responded, “Look, I’ll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it’ll be a really funny bit.”
Cohen and Wilson share an agent and Wilson said she threatened to call the agent at the time and tell her that Cohen was “harassing” her.
This was shortly before the #MeToo movement but, if true, these certainly sound like the types of offenses that came to light during that time.
Sacha Baron Cohen has responded to the allegations via a spokesperson, exclusively to Deadline, where he said “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.”
How did the allegations affect Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen's careers going forward?
Both Wilson and Baron Cohen have continued to appear in comedy franchises they were known for before the controversial Grimsby experience — Wilson in Pitch Perfect 3, Cohen in the Borat sequel — while also expanding their acting horizons in less familiar fare such as Jojo Rabbit for Wilson and The Trial of the Chicago 7 for Cohen.
The fallout hasn't outwardly affected their careers thus far, although the upcoming release of Rebel Wilson‘s memoir Rebel Rising and Sacha Baron Cohen's name now being put on blast may change that.
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