Rebel Wilson ‘Idolized’ Sacha Baron Cohen Before Alleged Harassment

Actress and comedian Rebel Wilson reflected on how much admiration she had for Sacha Baron Cohen before they worked together on his film The Brothers Grimsby this week on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.

Wilson said that prior to the incidents in her book that led her to call out Cohen, she had looked up to the actor. “Sacha was someone from a comedic perspective, I idolized,” Wilson said on Armchair Expert, “who I thought, oh my God, like hilarious,” citing the original Borat movie as a favorite. “He called me up one day and asked me to be in his movie,” she continued. “I thought like I'd hit the jackpot. I would’ve done it for free.”

This comes after Wilson leveled allegations against Cohen for being an “asshole” who asked her to “stick” her “finger up his butt.” When Wilson teased that she’d be naming Cohen in her memoir Rebel Rising, she accused the Borat star of trying to stop her book by threatening her through a “crisis PR manager and lawyers.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.