Actress Rebel Wilson has come forward for the first time with a story about being sexually harassed at the hands of an unnamed male co-star.
In an interview with People, the Pitch Perfect and Cats star said that the incident occurred before #MeToo and the outpouring of similar stories.
“He called me into a room and pulled down his pants,” she said. Then she said he asked her to perform a sexual act in front of his friends. “It was awful and disgusting,” she added.
Wilson, whose latest film, Senior Year, is now the No 1 film on Netflix, said that the unnamed actor then tried to ruin her career.
“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.”
Wilson who initially trained as a lawyer knew based on her professional training to document what had happened before calling her rep to complain as well as informing those around her in the industry. “Definitely amongst industry circles, I made sure people knew what happened,” she said.
Despite reporting, Wilson said she still grapples with her response, even asking why she stayed in that working situation “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.” 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.”
