Sacha Baron Cohen Denies Rebel Wilson’s ‘Demonstrably False Claims’ About Inappropriate Behavior on ‘Brothers Grimsby’ Set

Sacha Baron Cohen is denying Rebel Wilson’s claims after she said on social media that the “Borat” star is attempting to prevent her from publishing her memoir after she said it includes a chapter that exposes his behavior. Wilson and Baron Cohen played husband and wife in the 2016 action-comedy “The Brothers Grimsby,” on the set of which Wilson alleged Baron Cohen pressured her to appear nude, among other things.

“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 said in a statement to Variety through a spokesperson.

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On social media, Wilson had previously alluded to a “massive a**hole” whom she had once worked with, adding that the unidentified star had hired a crisis PR team and had started sending her threats. In a new Instagram update on March 25, she wrote: “I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘a**hole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.”

In older posts, Wilson alleged Baron Cohen is “trying to stop press coming out about my new book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth.” On March 15, Wilson wrote on Instagram: “When I first came to Hollywood, people were like, yeah, ‘I have a no a**hole policy, means like, yeah, I don’t work with a**holes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical. But then it really sunk in because I worked with a massive a**hole and yeah, now I definitely have a no a**holes policy.”

Speaking on a radio show back in 2014, Wilson suggested that Baron Cohen had pressured her to “go naked” in “The Brothers Grimsby,” with her threatening to call the agent they share and tell her that he was “harassing” her.

“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 said. “On the last day, I thought I’d obviously won the argument, and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”

Wilson also said that while shooting the final scene of “The Brothers Grimsby,” Baron Cohen allegedly asked her to “stick your finger up my butt.” When Wilson pointed out that it wasn’t in the script, she claimed he said, “Look, I’ll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it’ll be a really funny bit.”

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