Rebel Wilson’s “no asshole policy” apparently extends beyond Cats (2019). In a recent Instagram story, the actor shared which heretofore unnamed A-lister and former co-star she calls a “massive a**hole” in her forthcoming memoir, Rebel Rising: none other than Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, whom Rebel says has tried to prevent press on her book from coming out.
Per The Guardian, Rebel shared her distaste for the English actor via Instagram in the wee hours of Monday, March 25. “I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers,” read Wilson’s Instagram story. “The “a**hole” that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
Previously, while promoting Rebel Rising, Rebel teased on Instagram that she once worked with a “massive a**hole” in Hollywood, which led the Pitch Perfect star to create what she calls a “no a**holes 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,’” said Rebel on Instagram 10 days ago. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical.’ But then it really sunk in because I worked with a massive a**hole and yeah, now I definitely have a no a**holes policy.”
She continued to dangle the identity of the alleged co-star on social media. “Do you wanna know why I have a ‘no a**holes’ policy now with people I work with? Well, it’s all in the book,” said Wilson in a video posted to the social media platform before the big reveal. She also suggested that the person in question was trying to stop her from releasing her memoir, which hits stands on April 2. “He’s trying to stop press coming out about my new book,” she wrote. “But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth.”
Rebel acted opposite Sacha in the 2016 spy-comedy The Brothers Grimsby (titled simply Grimsby in the UK), which also starred Mark Strong, Gabourey Sidibe, Penélope Cruz, and Sacha’s wife, Isla Fisher. In the film, Sacha and Rebel played husband and wife, Alan “Nobby” Butcher and Dawn Grobham, a British couple who share eleven children. The Brothers Grimsby received terrible reviews (it currently holds a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes) and flopped at the box office, earning just $28 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million.
While discussing the movie on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show in Australia, Rebel alleged that Sacha repeatedly urged her to “just go naked” for a scene in the film, and that she told him 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 Sacha asked her to physically violate him for a bit in the film.
“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,’” she said. “You don’t wanna be a diva so I … said I’ll slap you once on the butt and that’s it.”
Sacha previously told The Guardian that he ultimately had a positive experience working on the film. “Any flop is difficult. But in retrospect, the experience was fantastic,” he said. “I was on the trajectory of a comedy movie star in Hollywood where you make a certain amount of movies that have to do well at the box office. The great thing about having a complete bomb was being liberated from that.”
A spokesperson for Sacha issued the following statement to Vanity Fair regarding Wilson’s allegations: “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.”
This article originally appeared in Vanity Fair.