Certain parts of the chapter about Sacha Baron Cohen in Rebel Wilson’s Rebel Rising memoir have been redacted in the UK version of the book for legal reasons.
In the UK version of the chapter titled “Sacha Baron Cohen and Other A–holes”, Wilson refers to “the worst experience of my professional life. An incident that left me feeling bullied, humiliated and compromised.”
But it comes with a caveat: “It can’t be printed here due to the peculiarities of the law in England and Wales.” The rest of that page is blacked out and other lines in the chapter are also redacted.
A representative for HarperCollins UK confirmed the UK redactions to MovieMaker, adding: “Those sections are a very small part of a much bigger story and we’re excited for readers to know Rebel’s story when the book is released, this Thursday 25th April.”
However, the full chapter is intact in the US version of the book, which came out on April 2.
Before the book was released, Wilson teased the chapter about Baron Cohen, whom she worked with on the 2016 film Grimsby, alternately titled The Brothers Grimsby.
“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,’” Wilson said in a March Instagram video. “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.”
She added: “The chapter on said a–hole is chapter 23. That guy was a massive a–hole.”
She identified Baron Cohen as the “massive a–hole” she had described, but said the actor’s representatives were trying to stop the chapter from being released in full.
“I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or crisis PR managers. The a–hole that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen,” she said in the Instagram story.
Baron Cohen’s reps gave MovieMaker the following statement ahead of the book’s release, calling the “a-hole” accusations “demonstrably false”:
“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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Reps for Wilson did not immediately respond to MovieMaker‘s request for comment Monday. Reps for Baron Cohen declined to comment further but re-shared the original statement.
In the un-redacted U.S. version of Rebel Rising, Wilson details her experiences working with the Borat actor, stating “I rue the day that I met Sacha Baron Cohen.”
Here’s What Else Rebel Wilson Says About Sacha Baron Cohen in Her Memoir, Rebel Rising
“Okay, so here’s the deal: I rue the day that I met Sacha Baron Cohen. ‘Never meet your idols,’ people say. No shit!” she writes.
She says she met the actor, whom she refers to as SBC, through a mutual friend, and that she had been a big fan of Borat — “so much so that even though I was technically a star in Australian comedy, I lined up to attend the Bruno premiere in Melbourne and sat in the cinema excitedly just for a glimpse of SBC.”
But when she met him one-on-one at a dinner party, he made her feel insecure about an opening monologue she was set to deliver at the MTV Video Music Awards, she says. Then she details his behavior on the set of The Brothers Grimsby.
After refusing repeated requests to appear naked on camera, Wilson says Baron Cohen asked her to change her outfit into something more revealing for a scene.
“It felt to me like a bunch of men were degrading me, making me show off the excessive fat behind my knees… they thought it was funny to laugh at the fat girl. SBC seemed to get off on the fact that here I was, a powerfully rising female comedy star, and he was yelling off camera, ‘Do a Sharon Stone and show your vagina’ as I’m sitting on the couch,” she writes. “Was this all because I said I wouldn’t go naked?”
Wilson previously told the story about the aforementioned incident on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in 2014. In the book, she expands on the story, describing how Baron Cohen invited her into a room within a sports stadium, asking her to film a scene for the movie without the presence of the director of film crew, surrounded only by his friends holding iPhones.
“‘Okay, well, we’re gonna film this extra scene,’ SBC says. Then he pulls his pants down while his friends stand there awkwardly recording the whole thing on their iPhones. SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my a–.’”
Main Image: Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen
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