Back in 2014, Rebel Wilson told an Australia radio show that Sacha Baron Cohen made “outrageous” demands on her while they filmed the 2016 comedy “The Brothers Grimsby,” detailing how he asked her “every day” to “go naked” in scenes and pressured her to perform a lewd act with him for their last scene together.
Wilson is now repeating those allegations in her new memoir, “Rebel Rising,” igniting controversy and prompting fierce denials from the “Borat” actor, amid suggestions that he could be “canceled.” Wilson’s claims are probably creating such a furor in 2024 because she’s making them in the era of the #MeToo movement, when women are encouraged to speak up about alleged mistreatment in the workplace and men in power have learned that they could be held accountable.
Indeed, in her book, Wilson said she wrote about her experience working with Baron Cohen because she wants “to help other women speak up about things like this,” according to People. At the same time, she insisted, “I’m not about canceling anybody and that’s not my motivation for sharing this story.”
Wilson explained that she often felt afraid of speaking up while working with Baron Cohen on “The Brothers Grimsby.” In the raunchy spy action comedy, which was laced with the British entertainer’s usual crass, edgy, “gross-out” humor, Wilson played Baron Cohen’s girlfriend. Baron Cohen also was a co-writer and producer.
Wilson wrote that she and Baron Cohen met at a dinner party in 2013, according to an excerpt published in People.
Once they began filming, Wilson said, “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.’”
One day, while filming at a soccer stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, she said that Baron Cohen summoned her via a production assistant, saying they needed to film an additional scene.
“‘OK, well, we’re gonna film this extra scene,’ SBC says,” Wilson wrote, according to People. “Then he pulls his pants down … . ” According to Wilson, Baron Cohen said “very matter-of-factly” that he wanted her to stick her finger into his rectum.
“And I’m like, ‘What?? … No!!’,” Wilson wrote.
Wilson continued, “I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the (butt) and improvised a few lines as the character.”
Wilson told a similar account in 2014 during an interview with the popular Australian radio show, “Kyle and Jackie O,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, per a report in Australia’s The Courier-Mail newspaper.
“Sacha is so outrageous,” Wilson said on the radio show. “Every single day he’s like, ‘Rebel, can you just go naked in this scene?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ 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 also said, “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 also described the last scene they shot together, when he asked her to do the lewd act with her finger.
“I went, ‘What do you mean Sacha? That’s not in the script,'” Wilson told the radio hosts. ““And he’s like, ‘Look, I’ll just pull down my pants. … it’ll be a really funny bit.'”
It doesn’t appear that Baron Cohen had any reaction to Wilson’s radio show interview in 2014, perhaps because her revelations didn’t make headlines across the internet, like they are doing in 2024. When People contacted Baron Cohen this week for his response to Wilson’s statements, he “vehemently” denied ever saying such things to Wilson, mistreating her or pressuring her to go naked.
His rep said in a statement: “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.'”
Baron Cohen’s representatives also provided anonymous statements from nine people who they say were involved in the film, People reported. Five said they witnessed the Cape Town scene, and all 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,” a producer said. “At no point did Sacha actually ask her to put a finger in his butt. Throughout this entire period, she was treated with the utmost respect and empowerment and was welcomed as a collaborator in all creative areas.”
A writer-producer also said: “This was a scheduled, scripted scene.”
But Wilson’s sister and a friend told People that she spoke to them soon after the Cape Town incident and shared her account of Baron Cohen’s on-set behavior. In her book, Wilson said she also called her agent and spoke to a lawyer. At the time, Wilson said, “I was encouraged to ‘be professional and finish the film.’ After that, “my way of dealing with it at that point was to try to laugh it off.”
So, Wilson said, she tried to laugh it off and finish the film. When she was asked to do reshoots, including a sex scene, she said, “I still had to simulate having sex with this guy. I still had to kiss him repeatedly.” A few months later, she wrote, “It really sank in that all this wasn’t something that could be laughed off. I relayed to the producers that I would not be doing any promotion for the film.”
It’s not likely that Wilson’s promotional efforts could have saved “The Brothers Grimsby” from being critically panned, as well as a box office “flop,” as Forbes reported.
“The movie bombed, which to me was karma enough,” Wilson wrote, according to People.
