Rebel Wilson Says She Felt ‘Disrespected’ on ‘Brothers Grimsby’ Set: ‘I Was Something to Be Laughed at and Degraded’
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Rebel Wilson has been speaking out about the way she felt she was treated while working on the 2016 action-comedy The Brothers Grimsby. In an interview with The Sunday Times, via Variety, the actress said she felt “disrespected on the set” but refrained from speaking out so as not be to called a “troublemaker.”
“It turned out to be the worst professional experience of my career,” she said. She told the outlet that she believed the film’s costumes were picked to “see all the cellulite on my thighs and a top to show the fattest part of my arm… like I was something to be laughed at and degraded because of my size.”
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She added: “It’s one thing for someone who is fat to exploit their size for comedy, but it’s another for somebody else to humiliate you.”
The interview comes on the heels of her revealing last week that her The Brothers Grimsby co-star Sacha Baron Cohen is the “massive asshole” she discusses in her memoir Rebel Rising, a claim he referred to as being “demonstrably false.” A new excerpt from her upcoming tome alleges the actor pressured Wilson into inappropriate scenes while on set for the 2016 film, including nude scenes and being asked by Cohen “to stick your finger up my ass.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, representatives for Cohen denied Wilson’s account of the interaction. “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,” the statement reads.
A rep for Cohen submitted several separate statements to Rolling Stone from anonymous sources said to have worked on the film, all of whom dispute Wilson’s account of events. One producer who claims to have been in the room specifically refuted the claim that Baron asked the actress to stick a finger up his butt. Another writer/producer who claimed to be in the room and on-set every day said they did not witness any inappropriate behavior, as did a cameraman. A make-up artist in the room said it was a scripted, professional shoot during an intimate scene that was shot, and an executive producer said that everyone, including the actors, had approved the scene in question.
Rebel Rising is set to arrive on April 2.
This article was updated on April 2 at 4:43 p.m. E.T. to include information from anonymous sources, provided by Cohen’s rep, who worked on the film denying the actress’ claims.
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