IS SHE a crusader or a Rebel without a cause?
That’s the question surrounding Rebel Wilson this week, as she stares down the barrel of yet another legal wrangling — while passionately claiming she’s a “whistleblower” fighting for justice.
This week, in a bombshell TV interview, the 45-year-old broke her silence on the legal battle she is fighting surrounding her feature film directorial debut.
The star, who was born and raised in Sydney, told 60 Minutes Australia she had been the target of “incessant . . . bullying and harassment” by the producers of her comedy musical, The Deb.
The producers are suing her for defamation, breach of contract and sabotage and the lead actress has also launched a lawsuit against her.
It comes just 18 months after Rebel accused Sacha Baron Cohen of inappropriate behaviour on the set of another production — which he denies — and eight years after a landmark defamation battle.
Now, with her star showing signs of waning Down Under, have the endless litigations and allegations destroyed Rebel’s career?
In the latest real-life drama, the producers of The Deb — Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden — launched their legal action after Rebel claimed they had embezzled film funds.
She also accused Amanda of sexually harassing lead actress Charlotte MacInnes on set.
Charlotte, who denies she made claims of sexual harassment, is suing Rebel for defamation after the latter implied she had “changed her story” and was backtracking to save her career.
Rebel says the producers’ complaints against her are “an attempt to sling mud at [her] reputation”, and that all the muck and mess surrounding the project has been her “worst nightmare”.
‘Smear campaign’
She is now countersuing the producers, accusing them of financial misdeeds, misconduct and coercion.
She claims she had been subjected to suppressive measures, saying: “They locked me in a room and forced me to sign documents. I was like, ‘This is like the KGB.’ ”
The producers vehemently deny Rebel’s allegations, which she initially highlighted in an Instagram video in July 2024.
In the original clip, Rebel accused them of “bad behaviour”, “embezzling funds” and of perpetrating “inappropriate behaviour towards the lead actress”.
She subsequently claimed it was Amanda Ghost who had taken things too far with Charlotte. Rebel alleged Amanda had “asked [Charlotte] to have a bath and shower with her and it made her feel uncomfortable”.
In an extra layer to the mudslinging, both Charlotte and the producers have also accused Rebel of being behind several websites allegedly created as a smear campaign, which have since been taken down.
What is very clear is that she is not as loved here in recent years as I think she expected to be
Eleanor Sprawson, a journalist based in Australia, on Rebel Wilson
These websites accused Amanda, who is of Indo–Trinidadian heritage, of being akin to “the Indian Ghislaine Maxwell” and referred to her as a “full pimp” who was “procuring young women for the pleasure of the extremely wealthy”.
Rebel has denied any involvement in a smear campaign or the creation of websites against her legal foes, claiming she was heavily involved in getting them removed.
The cases rumble on and Rebel remains undeterred.
Not only does she stand by her story and appears willing to fight to the end, she is also loudly promoting new projects on Instagram and is looking forward to seeing The Deb finally hit screens in Australia in January.
Rebel’s history suggests she is not someone to be provoked.
In 2016, Rebel — who found global fame in 2011 comedy Bridesmaids, before her scene-stealing turn as Fat Amy in 2012’s Pitch Perfect — set fire to the media landscape in Australia after launching a legal battle against Bauer Media.
In a landmark defamation case, Rebel sued the publisher over a series of articles published in 2015, that accused her of lying about her age, real name, and details of her upbringing, to advance her career.
Rebel said these stories had painted her as a serial liar and fraud, and had caused her to lose major film roles in Hollywood. She added that they had been perfectly timed to harm her as her career peaked post-Pitch Perfect.
Initially, the judge ruled in her favour, granting her $4.5million (£2.3million) — the largest defamation payout in Australian history — which she vowed to donate to charity and film projects.
But a later appeal saw the damages reduced to $600,000 — and Rebel was also ordered to pay 80 per cent of Bauer’s appeal costs.
While the appeal court upheld the initial verdict, it found the actress had not proved she had lost specific Hollywood roles solely because of the articles written about her. Another appeal followed — this time from Rebel — but the courts didn’t budge on the reduced payout.
Standing outside the High Court of Australia in November 2018, the actress told reporters: “To me, it was never about the money, but about standing up to a bully and I have done that successfully.”
Such a stance — pushing back against oppressors — is what Rebel has always argued she is doing. More so, perhaps, than the average celebrity — because, as time has passed, Rebel has continued to set the cat among the pigeons.
Last year, she hit the headlines again, as she released her autobiography Rebel Rising — taking to Instagram to identify Sacha Baron Cohen as the unnamed “massive a**hole” that a controversial chapter of the book centres on.
The Borat actor had directed and starred opposite Rebel in their 2016 movie Grimsby.
Rebel claimed she had been pressured to perform a “lewd act” that was never in a script.
Reflecting on the filming process, Rebel alleged Sacha made repeated, inappropriate requests to her, like: “Just go naked, it will be funny”.
She said she had felt “bullied, humiliated and compromised”.
‘The boy who cried wolf’
While no legal action was taken by either side, Sacha slammed the claims as “demonstrably false” and argued that all evidence — including film footage, production notes and eyewitness statements — contradicted her account.
The book was published in its entirety in the US, but was partially redacted in the UK and Australia — with any mention of Rebel’s allegations against Sacha blacked out due to the legal risk of defamation.
In March 2024, Rebel railed against her suppressors, writing on social media that she would not be “bullied or silenced by high-priced lawyers or crisis PR managers”.
And now she is doubling down on that promise, thanks to her latest public battle.
So, where does that leave Rebel, who, ten years ago was considered to be one of Hollywood’s funniest women.
Eleanor Sprawson, a journalist based in Australia, where Rebel initially found fame, says the temperature has changed towards the actress in recent years.
“What is very clear is that she is not as loved here in recent years as I think she expected to be,” Eleanor explains.
“She was loved, way back 20 or more years ago when she was in a comedy series called Pizza, and I think people were excited for her when she took off in Hollywood.
“So when she presented a local show called Pooch Perfect, TV executives definitely thought they were on to a huge winner: ‘Local girl turned Hollywood star returning to do humble Australian TV’-type thing.
“But in fact the show bombed — and it bombed literally when people were locked in their houses because of the pandemic, with nothing to do EXCEPT watch TV. I think it proves that Australians have not taken her to their hearts.”
She adds: “She certainly did herself no favours by slagging off that old show Pizza in her memoirs. This show is very fondly remembered about a kind of class of people who don’t get much exposure on Australian TV in general.”
No one in the industry will want to work with her in the future if this behaviour is kept up. They’d be scared of legal issues or defamatory language
PR expert Quincy Dash
Meanwhile, Rebel could be seen as fighting causes that matter. In 2021, she donated $1million to the Australian Theatre for Young People.
She’s certainly combative, but has needed to be. In 2022, she came out as gay by posting an Instagram photo of her and her then girlfriend, now wife, Ramona Agruma.
Rebel revealed she’d had to “rush” her coming out after The Sydney Morning Herald contacted her representatives for comment on the new relationship
The actress also had to face constant scrutiny over her fluctuating weight, which — while she previously said made her the go-to funny girl.
But, as PR expert Quincy Dash tells The Sun, her litigious and provocative behaviour sometimes makes her seem like “the boy who cried wolf”.
He warns that “no one in the industry will want to work with her in the future if this behaviour is kept up. They’d be scared of legal issues or defamatory language.”
As it stands, Rebel is pushing ahead, and will next be seen in the Sky Original festive film Tinsel Town next month.
But as for her once-glistening career, she’s going to have to really ask herself: Does she really have a cause worth fighting for?