‘I don’t really have any skeletons in my closet’: Rebel Wilson talks about the fuss surrounding her real age

THERE was a big fuss when a former classmate outed Rebel Wilson as a 35-year-old named Melanie. A year later, she says she never lied about anything.

IT CAUGHT everyone off guard when claims began flying around last year that Rebel Wilson was actually a 36-year-old named Melanie.

Since cracking the local television scene years ago in shows Fat Pizza and Bogan Pride, she had always been known as Rebel and insisted it’s her birth name. And as far as Wikipedia was concerned, she was 29 going on 30.

So when one of Wilson’s former classmates came out of the woodwork last year and told Woman’s Day the actress was actually 36 years old with the real, less colourful, name of Melanie Bownds, things seemed a bit odd.

“Her name is — or was — Melanie Bownds, and she’s 36. She was born in 1979 and left school in 1997,” the former classmate from Tara Anglican School for Girls in Sydney told the publication.

And the swipes didn’t stop at the details on her license.

“She was definitely not the class clown; none of us remember her being funny,” the classmate continued.

“While Rebel paints a picture of a gypsy upbringing, her family home was certainly not in any ‘ghetto’.”

Needless to say, the story got a lot of attention. At the time, Wilson responded with a simple tweet:

“OMG I'm actually a 100 year old mermaid formerly known as "CC Chalice" ... thanks shady Australian press for your tall poppy syndrome,” she wrote.

While the tweet diffused some of the unwanted attention, she’s now spoken at length about the fuss.

OMG I'm actually a 100 year old mermaid formerly known as "CC Chalice" ....thanks shady Australian press for your tall poppy syndrome x

— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) May 18, 2015

On tonight’s episode of Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery, Wilson denies having anything to hide.

”If I was guilty of something which, I mean, I don’t really have any skeletons in my closet — which is why it’s quite hard for people to write bad stuff about me,” she tells Zemiro. “You know, I don’t have a drug addiction, or secret child. But I think, when I did go to America, I kind of just stopped saying my age.”

Wilson agreed when Zemiro observed the superficial judgment that goes on in Hollywood and said she never explicitly lied about her age.

“...The reality is, when you work in America, you have to show your passport and your visa for every single job,” she said. “So it’s not like you can hide how old you are. So for the press to do a story that I was deliberately, you know, lying or whatever ... No, I was just being a lady and not telling my age when I moved to America. And that’s not really a crime. Also, most actresses do that.”

As for the questions about her real name, Wilson has a reasonable explanation.

“I went under one of my middle names, Melanie. And my father’s surname,” Wilson tells Zemiro. “And also, Rebel’s not ... for a Christian girls school, it’s not, like, the best name to have.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Wilson also said she’s searching for more serious roles. Much more serious.

“I’m looking for the next Animal Kingdom,” she said. “Actively looking. Australia does really good dramas. Something crime related — (a) murderer. I still feel like I’m at the beginning of my career and I’ve got so much to do and show people.”

Rebel Wilson appears on Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery tonight at 8pm on ABC.