Rebel Wilson has claimed she felt “sexually harassed” by Sacha Baron Cohen when they shot the film Grimsby together, leading to her “eating in an extremely unhealthy way”.
The Australian actress, 44, has accused the British comedian in her memoir Rebel Rising of a series of incidents of inappropriate behaviour on the set of the 2016 film, in which she played his on-screen girlfriend.
Wilson claims Baron Cohen, 52, persistently pressured her to film a nude scene and made her change into shorter and smaller clothes “where you could see as much cellulite as possible”.
Baron Cohen, the man behind characters including Ali G and Borat, has described the claims as “demonstrably false”.
Wilson, the star of Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids, said in the memoir released yesterday in the US that she does not wish Baron Cohen to be cancelled, but wants to talk about an experience which made her feel “completed disrespected, which led to me treating myself with even more disrespect by eating in an extremely unhealthy way”.
Wilson described Baron Cohen as her “idol” after they first met in 2013 at a dinner party hosted by British comedian Matt Lucas.
A year later, he called to offer her the part in Grimsby, starring alongside Mark Strong, Penelope Cruz, Ricky Tomlinson, Johnny Vegas, and Baron Cohen’s actress wife Isla Fisher.
During filming in Cape Town, South Africa, Wilson claimed she felt every time she talked to Baron Cohen “he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene”, which she claimed was in “no way essential” to the film’s plot.
Playing his girlfriend Dawn, Wilson said she felt the actor would give “gross directions” in scenes which were either derogatory to women or to her size.
She also claimed it appeared Baron Cohen “wanted me to look and feel awful”.
Wilson claims she was “lured” out of her trailer into an unfurnished concrete room with a mattress on the floor, with the only people in the room being Baron Cohen “and his mates”.
Allegedly Baron Cohen pulled down his trousers as his friends recorded on their phones, telling Wilson: “OK, now I want you to stick your finger up my ass”, for a scene that he said would be in the film.
Wilson, who said she was “scared”, claims director Louis Leterrier was not present, nor were any film crew, and she added: “It’s my opinion that Sacha Baron Cohen gets off on making people feel uncomfortable.”
In a statement, a representative for Baron Cohen 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.”
Wilson refused to promote Grimsby, saying it was the “only power I had left in this situation”, and she also claimed she was scared of speaking out as she did not want to be branded a “troublemaker”.
She shared a version of the claims on social media during the 2017 #MeToo movement without naming Baron Cohen.
Last month, in the lead-up to the publication of the memoir, Wilson identified the Ali G star as the person she had previously criticised, saying: “The more women talk about things like this, hopefully the less it happens”.
