In a new interview, the 'Senior Year' actress claims that the incident took place before the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse in 2017 and that the actor tried to 'destroy' her career.
- May 20, 2022
AceShowbiz - Rebel Wilson has claimed she was harassed by a male co-star. As she explained the reason behind her insistence on making sure there was a lot of "respect" for her younger co-stars on set of Netflix film "Senior Year", the "Bridesmaids" star alleged she had been the victim of sexual harassment years earlier.
"I wanted to bring the hilariousness and the heart [to 'Senior Year'] but because there's a lot of young cast in the film, I wanted to make sure there's a lot of respect for everybody. [Years ago, a male co-star], he called me into a room and pulled down his pants," the 42-year-old actress revealed. "It was awful and disgusting."
The "Pitch Perfect" star, who stars alongside budding actors 20-year-old Joshua Colley and 17-year-old Avantika Vandanapu in the comedy that sees her 37-year-old character head back to high school, went on to explain that the incident happened before the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse in 2017, and that her co-star had tried to "destroy her career."
Without naming her co-star, she told PEOPLE, "And all the behavior afterwards - this was all before #MeToo - where they kind of tried to destroy me and my career. If it had happened after #MeToo, then I could have just blasted them.
However, Rebel, who trained as a lawyer before turning to acting, made sure to "document" the alleged incident at the time and insisted that while the behaviour was "gross," other women have had it "worse."
"Because I'm a lawyer, I documented it. I called my rep. I got certain things in writing about what happened. Definitely amongst industry circles, I made sure people knew what happened," she stated. "Why did I stay in that situatio ... with that awful guy? I should have left. It wasn't worth it."
"But at the same time, I was like, 'Oh well, do the right thing, be a professional and finish the movie.' Now I would never do that," she added. "I thought even complaining to my agency was a big step. And to complain to the studio. I found out I was like the fourth person to complain about the guy. Such gross behavior, but a lot of women have had it way worse."
