Sacha Baron Cohen denies Rebel Wilson’s claims about his ‘a—hole’ on set behaviour
Ahead of her forthcoming memoir, the Pitch Perfect star alleged on Instagram that the Borat star has attempted to block her book from coming out: ‘I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers.’
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has denied Australian star Rebel Wilson’s explosive memoir claims that he is an “a — hole” as ‘demonstrably false.’
In an Instagram story posted on Monday, Wilson, 44, named Baron Cohen, 52, as the star allegedly trying to stop the publication of her upcoming memoir, “Rebel Rising.”
After previously referring to, but not naming, Baron Cohen as a “massive a —hole,” Wilson said that the star had allegedly hired a crisis PR team after learning she would dedicate a chapter of her memoir to exposing his behaviour.
“I will not be bullied or silenced by high-priced lawyers or PR crisis managers,” wrote Wilson. “The a—hole that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.”
The two comedians starred alongside each other in the 2016 box office flop Grimsby, which also starred Gabourey Sidibe, Penelope Cruz, and Cohen’s wife, Isla Fisher.
Wilson has since made several claims about Cohen’s untoward behaviour towards her on set, including that he allegedly repeatedly asked her to perform nude on film.
In a statement given to CNN on Tuesday a spokesman for Baron Cohen vehemently denied Wilson’s claims.
“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 spokesman said.
On March 16, while promoting Rebel Rising, Wilson teased on Instagram that she once worked with a “massive asshole” in Hollywood, which led the Pitch Perfect star to create what she calls a “no assholes 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’,” she said in the video.
“It really sunk in because I worked with a massive a —hole and yeah, now I definitely have a no a —holes policy.”
While discussing the movie on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in 2014, Wilson alleged that Cohen repeatedly urged her to “just go naked” for a scene in the film. She added that she told him that she would call their shared agent to “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,’” she said. “On the last day I thought I’d obviously won the argument and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”
In that same interview, Wilson also alleged that Cohen asked her to go off script and “sticker her finger up his butt,” in the final scene on the film. “It’ll be a really funny bit.’” she alleges he said. “You don’t wanna be a diva so I … said I’ll slap you once on the butt and that’s it.”