Sacha Baron Cohen denies Rebel Wilson's claims of 'a*****e' behaviour on film set
File images of Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen
Rebel Wilson has named Sacha Baron Cohen as the person who was a 'massive a*****e' on the sets of the 2016 film The Brothers Grimsby. In her forthcoming memoir Rebel Rising, she referred to Cohen as a 'massive a*****e' but did not name him.
On Monday, however, Rebel took to her Instagram story and wrote, "I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘a*****e’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen."
The Australian actor also claims that the Borat star is attempting to block the publication of the book.
Hours later, Baron Cohen's representatives rejected Rebel's claims and shared a statement with the Guardian saying, "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.
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In previous Instagram posts, Wilson claimed that a “massive a*****e” she once worked with had hired a crisis PR team and started sending her threats after she claimed they would be the subject of a chapter of her book.
“He’s trying to stop press coming out about my new book,” she wrote. “But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth."
Rebel had written on Instagram 10 days ago, "When I first came to Hollywood, people were like, yeah, ‘I have a no asshole policy, means like, yeah, I don’t work with assholes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical. But then it really sunk in because I worked with a massive asshole and yeah, now I definitely have a no assholes policy.”
Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen starred together as husband and wife in Grimsby.
Earlier, the actress had spoken about her experiences making the movie adding that Baron Cohen encouraged her to strip off entirely, before hiring a body double when she refused.
Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in Australia in 2014, Wilson said that Baron Cohen was so persistent that she told him she would call their shared agent “and tell her how much you are harassing me”.
She continued, “Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny. Remember in Borat when I did that naked scene? It was hilarious.’ 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 alleged that Baron Cohen asked her to stick her finger up his bottom in the final scene. “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.’” Wilson said they finally reached a compromise, “You don’t wanna be a diva so I … said I’ll slap you once on the butt and that’s it,” said Wilson.
Grimsby, which co-starred Isla Fisher and Mark Strong, is widely considered one of the worst movies in Baron Cohen’s screen career. The film had taken a long time in post-production.
