Rebel Wilson has been sued for defamation by three producers behind her directorial debut, The Deb, after she accused them of sexual harassment and embezzlement.
In an Instagram video on Wednesday, Wilson said she reported the producers last year when she “found out not minor things, big things” related to “inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film” and “embezzling funds from the film’s budget.” She accused them of blocking the movie from premiering at the closing spot of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
Producers Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, say Wilson lied in an attempt to release The Deb at TIFF, as well as secure a writing credit on the film.
The complaint details a combative relationship between the producers and Wilson, who allegedly refused to collaborate with them, deserted the production for months at a time and repeatedly made unauthorized and inappropriate disclosures about the movie. The dispute, they claim, came to a head when she moved to seize writing credit for the movie from Hannah Reilly, a recipient of Wilson’s theatre scholarship, despite a contrary decision from the Australian Writers’ Guild, which found in March that the screenplay credit belongs with Reilly, with Wilson getting an “additional writing by” credit.
When she didn’t get her way, Wilson in 2023 falsely accused Ghost of sexually harassing a lead actress in the film, according to the complaint. The lawsuit says that the actress “soundly denied any claims of inappropriate behavior” by the producer, at which point Wilson admitted she wasn’t aware of any specific allegations of sexual misconduct. In her Wednesday Instagram post, the producers claim she revived the allegations and said that Ghost “has a history of doing this kind of thing, mainly to music artists.
Other allegedly defamatory statements include accusing Ghost and Cameron of embezzling funds from the film.
Despite The Deb being selected to debut at TIFF, the producers were wary because the film was embroiled in numerous credit and licensing disputes allegedly instigated by Wilson. The lawsuit claims she tried to bully the trio into capitulating to her demands by threatening to accuse them of inappropriate behavior on set to her 11 million Instagram followers.
The movie, produced for $22 million, is based on a script by Reilly, which was adapted from a stage play of the same name, also written by the Wilson protégé.
