Rebel Wilson Claims Sacha Baron Cohen “Set Out To Humiliate And Degrade Her Physical Size”

Rebel Wilson is not holding back regarding alleged claims that Sacha Baron Cohen degraded and sexually harassed her on the set of their 2016 film, The Brothers Grimsby. The actress details many of the events in her upcoming memoir.

The Brothers Grimsby

Release Date

March 11, 2016

Runtime

83 Minutes

Studio

Sony Pictures

Tagline

Behind every hero is an embarrassing sibling

Per The Times, Wilson’s memoir Rebel Rising goes into detail about claims that Cohen sexually harassed her and made her feel “disrespected on set”, particularly about the attention that was paid to her weight on screen. The actress said, “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.” Wilson goes on to say that costumes were picked to “see 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.”

While the actress does say she kept quiet at the time of the events out of fear of being perceived as a troublemaker, she did refuse to run naked across a football pitch for one particular scene. Once it was decided Wilson would not film the scene, she claims a stripper was hired to complete it and that they made her watch it on a monitor. Despite all of her claims, the actress did return to film reshoots, but she expressed that she felt ashamed about coming back and went on to say, “The fact that I went back…Why do I have such low self-worth?”

Sascha Baron Cohen Has Vehemently Denied Rebel Wilson’s Claims

Since the claims emerged in preparation for the release of her memoir, Cohen and the film’s producers have denied Wilson’s allegations. Cohen and several anonymous people who worked on the film claim many of the things that the actress took issue with were in the script, and she was fully aware of it before she started filming. A clip also recently appeared in the UK’s Daily Mail that appears to show Wilson collaborating in the creative process without incident, but she claims the clip was presented out of context and edited.

The Brothers Grimsby is a spy action comedy film written by Cohen, Phil Johnston, and Peter Baynham. Directed by Louis Leterrier, the film follows a top spy named Sebastian Graves (Mark Strong) who is assigned to team up with his older football hooligan brother Kyle Alan “Nobby” Butcher (Cohen). Wilson is a part of the ensemble cast, playing Nobby’s girlfriend and the mother of his 11 children. In addition to Cohen, Wilson, and Strong, the film also stars Cohen’s wife Isla Fisher, Penélope Cruz, Gabourey Sidibe, and Annabelle Wallis, among others.

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The film was a critical and box office flop, registering a 36 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing a mere $6.9 million domestically on a $35 million budget. The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, “The Brothers Grimsby showers viewers with a steady stream of Sacha Baron Cohen’s edgy humor, but too many gags hit the wrong side of the line between audacious and desperate.”