Sacha Baron Cohen has responded to Rebel Wilson calling him a “massive a–hole,” saying the accusations are “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,” a spokesperson for Baron Cohen told MovieMaker on Monday.
Here’s What Rebel Wilson Said About Sacha Baron Cohen
The statement comes in response to Wilson’s Instagram story from Sunday, in which she identified Baron Cohen as the “massive a–hole” she had described last week when teasing a chapter of her upcoming book Rebel Rising.
“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, which you can see below.
Last week, in a March 15 Instagram video, she described an unnamed actor that inspired her “no-a–holes” policy.
“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 the 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.”
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She added: “The chapter on said a–hole is chapter 23. That guy was a massive a–hole.”
Wilson has not explained the context of her experience with Baron Cohen, but in the 2016 movie Grimsby, she played Dawn, the on-screen girlfriend to Baron Cohen’s character Nobby, a British footballer who becomes a spy. Other cast included Baron Cohen’s real-life wife Isla Fisher, Mark Strong, and Penélope Cruz.
In addition to her complaints about working with Baron Cohen, she also accused the actor of trying to “threaten” her in order to prevent news stories from coming out about her book.
“I wrote about an a–hole in my book. Now, said a–hole is trying to threaten me,” she said in a now-expired Instagram story from Friday, according to Us Weekly. “He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth.”
Wilson’s book, Rebel Rising, comes out on April 2 from Simon & Schuster.
In 2014, Wilson previously spoke about working with Baron Cohen on Grimsby, calling him “outrageous” in an interview with the Kyle and Jackie O radio show.
“Sacha is so outrageous,” she told the radio show, via The Courier-Mail.
“Every single day he’s like, ‘Rebel, can you just go naked in this scene?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ Sacha and I have the same agent in America and I’m like, ‘Sacha, I’m going to call our agent Sharon and tell her how much you are harassing me.’
“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,” she added.
But then, she said, Baron Cohen had another request.
“Then in the last scene … he was like, ‘Rebel can you just stick your finger up my butt?’ 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,'” she said.
She said she refused, but made 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.
See Wilson’s Sunday Instagram story below.
Main Image: Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen in Grimsby, Sony Pictures Releasing
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