Sacha Baron Cohen is calling accusations Rebel Wilson made against him in her upcoming memoir “demonstrably false.”
On April 2, the “Pitch Perfect” star will release “Rebel Rising” — a book she stated last month will include a chapter dedicated to a “massive asshole” she once worked with.
Over the weekend, Wilson revealed in an Instagram story that the person she was referring to was Cohen, with whom she co-starred in the 2016 spy comedy “The Brothers Grimsby,” a film Cohen co-wrote. In the post, Wilson also stated Cohen’s team of “high priced lawyers” and “PR crisis managers” are now trying to “threaten” her ahead of the release of her memoir.
On Monday, the Ali G comedian responded to the allegations in a statement to Deadline.
“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,” Cohen’s statement read.
Although Wilson has remained somewhat vague about the specifics of what her chapter about the “Bruno” star entails, it likely will involve a disturbing sexual harassment claim Wilson made about Cohen in 2014.
At the time, Wilson told radio station KIIS FM that Cohen routinely harassed her to “go naked” in a scene because “it will be funny.” Wilson said Cohen eventually hired a body double so she wouldn’t have to do it, but she was surprised when he later asked her to perform an unscripted sexual act on him in the final scene they shot.
“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,’” Wilson recalled to the radio station at the time.
Wilson went into more detail about the incident in a 2017 post amid the #MeToo movement but left Cohen’s name out of it.
“A male star, in a position of power asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass,” she wrote, adding that the man’s friends were laughing and trying to film on their phones.
She said she later told her agent about the incident, which resulted in her getting a call from Cohen’s representation threatening her to “be nice.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.