Rebel Wilson has returned for a third day in the Federal Court witness box as she defends a defamation case brought against her by a lead actor in her directorial debut.
Charlotte MacInnes, 27, appeared alongside Wilson, 46, in Australian musical film The Deb and is suing the Hollywood star over a series of Instagram stories posted between September 2024 and July last year.
Wilson, who was also a producer of the film, is also facing lawsuits brought against her by the international co-producers of The Deb, including a defamation case in the US.
MacInnes alleges Wilson defamed her by suggesting she was a “sellout” and a liar who recanted a sexual harassment complaint to Wilson about one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost, in return for further job opportunities with Ghost. MacInnes denies making a complaint.
Wilson started giving evidence in the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday and her cross-examination by MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, is expected to conclude on Thursday morning.
Wilson rejected as “nonsense” a suggestion by Chrysanthou on Wednesday that she made up the complaint to create division between Ghost and MacInnes. This was an “absolute nightmare situation” for her as a first-time director, she said.
“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 suggested in the Instagram stories that 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”.
She alleged MacInnes later “changed her story” to advance her career.
Neither MacInnes nor Ghost was named in the initial story, but it contained identifying information including an image of MacInnes.
There is no dispute Ghost and MacInnes shared a bath on September 5, 2023, while wearing their swimming costumes.
The women 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, they were staying at a rented Bondi apartment during rehearsals for The Deb.
It is also 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.”
But Wilson raised the alleged complaint about the bath incident 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.
“You used the allegation, which had long since been resolved, to get your way, didn’t you?” Chrysanthou asked during cross-examination on Wednesday.
“It hadn’t been resolved. Things had calmed down, yes, but did I have a sense of uneasiness about what the truth was, what actually happened? Yes, I had an uneasiness,” Wilson said. “It was really sus [suspicious].”
The Federal Court hearing in Sydney is expected to conclude on Friday after a nine-day trial.
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