Rebel Wilson Says ‘The Brothers Grimsby’ Was “the Worst Professional Experience of My Career”

Rebel Wilson is doubling down on her allegations against Sacha Baron Cohen. In a new interview with the Sunday Times, Wilson continued to speak out about her time working with the comedian on The Brothers Grimsby, saying that she felt “disrespected on set” of the film, but that she didn’t speak out for fear of being labeled “a troublemaker” in the industry.

Wilson’s memoir, Rebel Rising, is set to be released April 2. Ahead of the book’s publication, she said on social media that she would reveal which major Hollywood star she thinks is a “massive asshole” and alleged that said star was attempting to block her memoir from being released. Last week via Instagram story, Wilson confirmed that the asshole in question was her Brothers Grimsby co-star Sacha Baron Cohen, who also served as co-writer and producer on that film.

Wilson is now doubling down on her ill will toward Cohen, spilling more details to the Sunday Times about her experience working with him on the 2016 action-comedy. “It turned out to be the worst professional experience of my career,” she said. In the film, Wilson played Dawn Grobham, the girlfriend of Cohen’s Alan “Nobby” Butcher, and mother to his eleven children. She told the Sunday Times that she believes her costumes were chosen intentionally 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.”

“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,” she said.

At the time, Wilson wanted to speak out but didn’t want to labeled “a troublemaker,” she said. In 2017, she posted a now-deleted thread on X detailing her negative experience on set without revealing Cohen’s identity or the film she was working on. In the tweets, she wrote that a male star “asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass.” After she refused, Wilson alleged that she “was threatened by one of the star’s representatives to be nice and supportive,” she wrote. “The whole thing was disgusting.” Wilson told a similar version of this story on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in Australia while promoting the film, identifying Cohen as the male star.

“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.’” she said. “You don’t wanna be a diva so I … said I’ll slap you once on the butt and that’s it.”

Cohen has vehemently denied the allegations. “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 actor said in a statement to Vanity Fair through a spokesperson.