Rebel Rising: Rebel Wilson’s memoir published with redactions following Sacha Baron Cohen claims

Rebel Wilson has hit out at Sacha Baron Cohen once again amid the release of her book. Photos / AP

Rebel Wilson’s memoir has been published with a page of redactions blanking out her claims about Sacha Baron Cohen’s on-set behaviour.

A chapter of Rebel Rising is titled “Sacha Baron Cohen and Other A–holes”, with Wilson making allegations about her experiences on the film The Brothers Grimsby, all of which he denies.

However, following an intervention by Baron Cohen’s lawyers, the most striking claims cannot be read.

Wilson begins to describe a scene being shot at a football stadium in Cape Town. “What followed was the worst experience of my professional life. An incident that left me feeling bullied, humiliated and compromised. It can’t be printed here due to peculiarities of the law in England and Wales,” she says, before the redactions begin.

In an interview with The New York Times to promote the memoir, Wilson claimed that Baron Cohen asked her to “insert my finger up his a**”, which left her humiliated.

Sources close to Baron Cohen claimed that the line was scripted and Wilson had approved the scene before filming. Through his lawyers, Baron Cohen said in a statement: “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.”

Sacha Baron Cohen as character Norman 'Nobby' Grimsby. Photo / Getty

Wilson previously claimed on Instagram, in the weeks leading up to the book’s publication: “I will not be bullied or silenced with high-priced lawyers or PR crisis managers.”

The Brothers Grimsby, also known as Grimsby, was shot in 2014 and released two years later. In the memoir, Wilson says she was introduced to Baron Cohen via Matt Lucas, a mutual friend.

The actress, then 34, played Baron Cohen’s wife. She claims in the book that Baron Cohen put her in outfits that emphasised her weight and showed “as much cellulite as possible”, and said it “felt like he and his mate on set wanted to laugh at me, not with me”.

She alleged that he “kept pushing” her to film a nude streaking scene on a football field and, when she refused, hired a local stripper as her body double.

Wilson said she refused to promote the film. “The movie bombed, which to me was karma enough,” she said.

Rebel Wilson's memoir chronicles her career, weight issues and sexuality. Photo / Getty Images

‘Made me feel like rubbish’

“I’m not about cancelling anybody and that’s not my motivation for sharing this story. My goal is to tell you, dear readers, about an experience that was hard. That made me feel like rubbish.”

Wilson said she will always “rue the day that I met Sacha Baron Cohen” and signed off the chapter by saying that “every time I drive past his house in LA, I do wind down the window of my G-wagon and stick my middle finger right up at him”.

In the memoir, Wilson, 44, chronicles her career, weight issues and sexuality.

After starting out in her native Australia, she moved to Hollywood in 2010 and made her breakthrough with a supporting role in the hit comedy Bridesmaids. Her other credits include Pitch Perfect, Jojo Rabbit and the Cats movie.

In 2017, she was awarded a record-breaking A$4.5 million ($4.9m) in Australia’s largest defamation payout, arguing that a series of magazine articles published by Bauer Media had wrongly portrayed her as a serial liar.