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Rebel Wilson sexually harassed by director and co-star
Australian actress Rebel Wilson has spoken out about her experiences of sexual harassment in the movie industry.
In an interview with the BBC, Wilson, who was recently named as one of the BBC’s 100 Women of 2021, recounted two incidents of harassment she had experienced at work.
The first incident occurred when Wilson was in her twenties and working with a “big time” movie director.
She was invited to his hotel room in Australia, where he tried to ply her with alcohol and make sexual advances towards her.
Wilson recalls that the director’s wife called him during the incident, and she overheard the conversation in which the director’s wife accused him of intending to sleep with Wilson.
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The second incident occurred on a film set in Los Angeles, when an unnamed actor invited Wilson to his trailer and behaved in an “disgusting” and inappropriate way.
According to Wilson, the actor dropped his trousers and asked her to perform a lewd act while his male friends watched and filmed on their phones.
Wilson did not name the actor or his friends present in the trailer, but she did report the incident to her agent at the time, who in turn reported it to the studio.
It transpired that Wilson was the fourth woman to complain about the actor.
Wilson says that the second incident occurred before the Me Too movement, and she “didn’t quite know what to do” as she was in a foreign country.
She did, however, remain on the project, feeling that it was the professional thing to do.
Wilson now says that if a similar incident were to occur again, she would respond differently.
“Now I have the courage to be like, OK, that is disgusting,” she says.
Wilson recently spoke about the pushback she received from her management before her recent weight loss.
In an Instagram post, she wrote: “I got to a point where I was working 16 hours most days and eating sugary snack foods to keep my energy up.
“I never drank water and my hormones were out of balance.
“I was in my early 30s and my body was just not working properly.”
In her interview with the BBC, Wilson also spoke about the importance of calling out sexual harassment in the movie industry.
“People have to be held accountable for their actions,” she said. “I think there’s still a lot of work to be done in that area.”
The actress also talked about her experience of working on the film Pitch Perfect, which she says was a positive experience.
“We had an amazing director, Jason Moore, who was all about empowering the women and making sure that we had our moments,” she said.
Wilson’s comments come amid a growing focus on sexual harassment in the entertainment industry, prompted in part by the Me Too movement.
In recent years, a number of high-profile figures in the industry, including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Cosby, have faced allegations of sexual misconduct.