The 44-year-old actress revealed last week an unnamed male celebrity was trying to stop the publication of her upcoming memoir ‘Rebel Rising’ – which is due for release on 2 April – and she’s now identified the mystery person as her co-star in 2016 movie ‘The Brothers Grimsby’.
“I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.
“The ‘a*****e’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
Her message followed one from a few days before, in which she claimed: “I wrote about an a*****e in my book. Now, said a*****e is trying to threaten me. He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers.
“He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out and you will all know the truth.”
In response, Baron Cohen’s spokesperson told BBC News: “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 The Brothers Grimsby.”
Rebel previously spoke about facing harassment from a male co-star who then tried to “destroy” her career.
She told People magazine in 2022: ” [Years ago, a male co-star], he called me into a room and pulled down his pants. It was awful and disgusting.
“And all the behaviour 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.”
She said: “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.
“Why did I stay in that 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.”
