Rebel Wilson is ready to reveal all, even before her memoir, “Rebel Rising,” hits the shelves. The “Pitch Perfect” star recently accused actor Sacha Baron Cohen of using legal threats to prevent her from staining his reputation in the book.
“I will not be bullied or silenced by high-priced lawyers or PR crisis managers,” the Australian actress wrote in an Instagram Story on Monday (March 25). “The ‘a**shole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.”
Last week, Rebel announced that one chapter of her book—set to be released April 2—would expose the inappropriate behavior of a former male co-star.
“I wrote about an a**hole in my book. Now, said a**hole is trying to threaten me,” she shared on Friday (March 22).
Rebel Wilson accused Sacha Baron Cohen of threatening her with lawyers over the publication of her memoir, Rebel Rising
Image credits: rebelwilson
“He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He’s trying to stop the press from coming out about my new book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth.”
Rebel and Sacha starred together in the 2016 film “The Brothers Grimsby,” which sees the “Borat” star as Nobby Butcher, a man from the UK town of Grimsby who discovers that his long-lost brother is a spy. Rebel plays Nobby’s girlfriend, Dawn.
The 44-year-old actress had already spoken out about her negative experience working with Sacha on the film during a 2014 interview on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show.
The Australian actress claims Sacha hired “PR crisis managers” to stop her from exposing him in the book, which is set to be released on April 2nd
Speaking on the radio show, Rebel recalled how her co-star pressured her to take off her clothes for the movie.
“Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny. Remember in Borat when I did that naked scene? It was hilarious,'” Rebel said.
“On the last day, I thought I’d obviously won the argument, and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”
The “Jojo Rabbit” actress also claimed that Sacha asked her to perform a lewd act that wasn’t in the script.
She said: “Then in the last 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.'”
“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.'”
Rebel resolved the issue by settling on a compromise with Sacha’s character, slapping him on the butt instead, according to the Australian newspaper The Courier Mail.
Rebel and Sacha worked together in the 2016 film “The Brothers Grimsby”
The Sydney-born comedian has previously spoken out about being harassed on a film set by an unnamed actor before the #MeToo movement.
“He called me into a room and pulled down his pants,” she told People Magazine in 2022. Then, in front of his friends, the actor in question asked her to perform a sexual act that Rebel described as “awful and disgusting.”
“Because I’m a lawyer, I documented it,” she shared. “I called my rep. I got certain things in writing about what happened.”
In a 2014 interview, Rebel revealed Sacha pressured her to film a nude scene for the film
Rebel admitted she regretted working with him, though she expressed pride in summoning the courage to denounce him “amongst industry circles” and complain about the incident with her agency.
“I should have left. It wasn’t worth it. But at the same time, I was like, ‘Oh well, do the right thing, be a professional, and finish the movie.’ Now, I would never do that,” the star said.
“I found out I was like the fourth person to complain about the guy. Such gross behavior, but a lot of women have had it way worse.”
“At this point, we aren’t surprised,” someone commented
