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Rebel Wilson has told a court it was an “absolute nightmare situation” for a sexual harassment complaint to be made by a lead actor against a producer in her directorial debut as she denied fabricating the story to create division.
Wilson, 46, is at the centre of a welter of litigation, including a US lawsuit, brought against her by her international co-producers on The Deb, an Australian musical film released earlier this month.
She is also being sued for defamation in the Federal Court by a lead actor in the film, Charlotte MacInnes, 27, over a series of comments on Instagram.
Wilson started giving evidence in the nine-day defamation trial on Tuesday and returned to the witness box on Wednesday for further cross-examination by MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC.
MacInnes alleges Wilson defamed her by suggesting she was a “sellout” and a liar who recanted a complaint to Wilson about one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost, in return for further career opportunities with Ghost.
MacInnes told the court last week that she “never made a complaint” to Wilson and “didn’t walk back anything”.
‘Absolute nightmare situation’
Wilson rejected as “nonsense” a suggestion by Chrysanthou on Wednesday that she made up the complaint to be divisive, and said this was an “absolute nightmare situation” for her as a first-time director.
“It’s nonsensical. I’d worked for years to get this project up,” Wilson said. “It would not at all be in my interest to make up a sexual harassment complaint between these two very important people.”
Wilson denied on Tuesday that she had “bullied and harassed” MacInnes “publicly and privately”.
Wilson denies text ‘over the top’
On Wednesday, Wilson was shown text messages between her and MacInnes at the beginning of their working relationship in May 2023.
The court heard Wilson secured a ticket for MacInnes to watch a production on London’s West End with her and some cast mates from The Deb, but MacInnes did not reply at the time to text messages. MacInnes texted later that she “ended up getting dinner with Amanda and only just got wifi”. In follow-up texts she offered “huge apologies”.
Wilson responded: “Hi Charlotte. I appreciate the apology. In the future, it is terribly rude to say you wanted a ticket to a show and then you don’t reply or follow up. It’s not a great start to our working relationship.”
Chrysanthou put to Wilson on Wednesday that the text was a “form of bullying … of this young actress who you were superior to in the context of the film”.
Wilson said she did not regard “one text message as bullying”, and she did not “see how inviting someone who loves musical theatre to a musical is bullying in any way”.
“It was chastisement of a person over which you held power that was completely over the top,” Chrysanthou said. “No, I don’t agree,” Wilson said.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, Wilson also denied bullying and harassing Ghost and the film’s writer Hannah Reilly, who wrote the stage production of The Deb and developed the script for film.
The court has heard Wilson and Reilly had a falling out after Wilson sought a writing credit for the film.
The Australian Writers Guild’ found in favour of Reilly in 2024 in a binding arbitration, and she received sole credit for writing the screenplay. Wilson received an additional writing credit.
The Instagram stories
Wilson made the comments at the centre of the lawsuit in Instagram stories between September 2024 and July last year.
She suggested MacInnes made “a complaint to me as director” that Ghost “asked her to have a bath and shower with her and it made her feel uncomfortable”, but the young actor later “changed her story” to advance her career. MacInnes denies the claims.
Neither woman was named in that Instagram story, but it contained identifying information.
There is no dispute that MacInnes and Ghost shared a bath on September 5, 2023, while they were wearing their swimming costumes.
MacInnes and Ghost say it was in response to a medical episode in which Ghost had a reaction to cold water after swimming at Bondi Beach. At the time, the pair were staying at a rented Bondi apartment – along with Ghost’s assistant Pia Ashcroft, who was head of music at Ghost’s production company – during rehearsals for The Deb.
Wilson alleges MacInnes confided in her the following day that the incident made her uncomfortable before she “changed her story” to secure other career opportunities with Ghost, a claim MacInnes denies.
Wilson gave evidence on Wednesday that Ashcroft had told her “that she had walked in and seen them [Ghost and MacInnes] together” in the bath. Later, she told the court there was a point where Ashcroft’s opinion of Ghost started to “shift”.
It is not disputed that Wilson called MacInnes on September 7, 2023, before texting Ghost: “Charlotte says all good. She just meant ‘it was a bizarre situation’ not that she felt personally uncomfortable x.”
Wilson agreed that she had joked with Ghost later that month about re-casting MacInnes in the film, and messages tendered in court show the pair exchanged friendly texts.
But Wilson raised the alleged complaint again in October 2023. Chrysanthou claims she did so as “leverage” amid a commercial dispute with the film’s producers rather than to protect a young actor, an allegation Wilson denies.
The hearing continues.
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