Rebel Wilson Claims She Worked With a ‘Massive Asshole’ During Early Hollywood Years
Rebel Wilson is peeling back the curtain on her early years in Hollywood in her Rebel Rising memoir, including the worst costars she’s ever had.
“When I first came to Hollywood, 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, 44, said in a Friday, March 15, Instagram video. “Then it really sunk in what they were meaning by that: Older people in the industry.”
The Pitch Perfect star further explained that she once “worked with a massive a--hole” in an undisclosed movie.
“And yeah, now I definitely have a no assholes policy,” Wilson added. “The chapter on said asshole is Chapter 23 [in my memoir]. That guy was a massive asshole.”
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Wilson did not name said individual in her social media video but hinted via her Instagram caption that his identity will be revealed in her memoir, which hits bookstore shelves on April 2.
“Do you wanna know why I have a ‘no assholes’ policy now with people I work with? Well it’s all in the book: REBEL RISING available for pre-order now,” she wrote on Friday. “Oh and YES I name the asshole!” (Rebel Rising is set to hit shelves on April 2.)
Wilson has yet to elaborate on the specifics, but won’t be the first time she’s claimed to be a victim of misconduct by her coworkers. Nearly five years earlier, Wilson claimed that she had been sexually harassed by a “male star.” (It is not presently known if the “massive asshole” from Rebel Rising is the same person.)
“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 via X in a since-deleted post in November 2017 referring to the “Me Too” movement, per 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 continued, “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.”
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Wilson noted that she called her agent “immediately” before her attorney “made a complaint” with the film studio.
“[It was] basically to protect myself that in the event something similar ever occurred I'd be able to walk out of the job and not obligated to return,” she noted via X at the time. “Later I was threatened by one of the star's representatives to be nice and support the star. I refused. The whole thing was disgusting.”
While Wilson did not identify the male actor or his pals, several social media users resurfaced a 2014 interview in which she accused Sacha Baron Cohen, whom she worked with on The Brothers Grimsby, of harassment.
“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.’ Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny. Remember in Borat when I did that naked scene? It was hilarious.’ On the last day, I thought I’d obviously won the argument and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”
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According to Wilson, things changed while filming the final scene. “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,’” Wilson further alleged. “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, never publicly addressed the allegations. Us Weekly has reached out for comment.
Wilson also previously accused a “big-time” movie director of harassment during a 2021 interview with the BBC, claiming he invited her to his hotel room under the guise of helping her comedic career.
“He kept trying to give me more and more alcohol,” she alleged, without naming the filmmaker. Wilson then claimed she overheard a phone conversation between him and his wife. “She started saying, 'You’ve got Rebel in that hotel room, you were going to sleep with her.’ I heard the message. That was the first time I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what is this? What’s going on?’ If I hadn’t had heard her voice on the phone, screaming through the phone, what could’ve happened?”
Wilson abruptly left the room, vowing never to tell a soul about the encounter.
