Sacha Baron Cohen released a statement through a representative after Rebel Wilson revealed she wrote a chapter about him being a “massive asshole” in her forthcoming memoir, Rebel Rising.
“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 rep for Cohen told Us Weekly on Monday, March 25.
A source confirmed to Us that Wilson, 44, tells a story in the book about working with Cohen, 52, on the 2016 movie The Brothers Grimsby. Wilson’s past quotes about Cohen from a radio interview while promoting the film have since resurfaced.
“Sacha is so outrageous. Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny.’ 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,'” Wilson claimed on Australian radio’s Kyle and Jackie O Show in 2014.
Wilson said that things took a turn while filming the final scene of the film. “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,’” Wilson alleged. “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.’”
Earlier on Monday, Wilson took to social media to accuse Cohen of trying to silence her.
“I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘asshole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sasha Baron Cohen,” the actress wrote via Instagram Story.
Wilson previously teased that the book would explain her “no assholes policy.”
“I don’t work with assholes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean that sounds sensible, logical,’” she said via an Instagram video earlier this month. “Then it really sunk in what they were meaning by that: Older people in the industry.”
Rebel Rising goes on stands Tuesday, April 2.
