Sacha Baron Cohen has spoken out amid Rebel Wilson’s claims he behaved like an “asshole” when the pair worked together.
The two actors took the lead in the 2016 comedy Grimsby, which also starred Penélope Cruz, David Harewood, Mark Strong and Gabourey Sidibe.
Last week, Rebel posted a video on Instagram, in which she referred to an undisclosed former co-star who she’d written about in her upcoming book.
“I worked with a massive asshole, and yeah, now I definitely have a ‘no assholes’ policy,” she said. “The chapter on said asshole is chapter 23. That guy was a massive asshole.”
In a follow-up Instagram story post shared on Monday morning, Rebel told her followers: “I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers.
“The ‘asshole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
A spokesperson for Sacha has since told HuffPost UK: “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 [Grimsby].”
While Rebel offered no further information in her Instagram posts, she previously shared her side of the story on her working relationship with the Borat creator during a 2014 radio interview with KIIS FM.
“Sacha is so outrageous,” she said at the time, as reported by the Australian outlet Courier Mail. “Every single day he’s like, ‘Rebel, can you just go naked in this scene?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’.
“Sacha and I have the same agent in America and I’m like, ‘Sacha, I’m going to call our agent Sharon and 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 continued: “On the last day I thought I’d obviously won the argument and he got a body double to do the naked scene.
“Then in the last scene ... he was like, ‘Rebel can you just stick your finger up my butt?’ And I went, ‘What do you mean Sacha? That’s not in the script.’
“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’.”
The Australian performer added: “You don’t wanna be a diva so I [said] I’ll slap you once on the butt and that’s it.”
The Pitch Perfect actor’s book, Rebel Rising, is currently scheduled for release next month.