Rebel Wilson in 2023.Photo:Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
In her new memoir,Rebel Wilsonis revealing the numbers behind her ascent to superstar status in Hollywood.
Rebel Rising, the 44-year-old actress’ tell-all book pulling back the curtain on her past, details the salaries of her two biggest career breakthroughs: 2011’sBridesmaidsand 2012’sPitch Perfect.
Soon after moving from Australia to the U.S. — to become “the female Jonah Hill,” she writes in the book — Wilson signed with agents at William Morris Endeavor and bookedBridesmaids, from directorPaul Feig, producerJudd Apatowand writersKristen WiigandAnnie Mumolo. She calls the comedy her “first opportunity in Hollywood that changed the trajectory of my whole career.”
Getting paid only $3500 for her scenes with costars Wiig andMatt Lucas“didn’t matter to me,” writes Wilson, noting that the fee was just enough to pay what was required to join the SAG-AFTRA union and continue to make movies in the U.S. “The experience was everything!”
Within two weeks of the movie’s premiere about a year after filming, Wilson recalls, she booked a whopping six movies, “one of which wasPitch Perfect. Boy, did that movie pay dividends!”
Rebel Wilson.Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty; Universal
Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty; Universal
While the 2012 a cappella comedy became a box office hit (and earned Wilson $65,000), it was 2015’sElizabeth Banks-directed sequel that had thebiggestmovie musical opening ever. As Wilson reveals inRebel Rising, having franchise cast membersAnna Kendrick,Brittany Snow,Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean and Alexis Knapp back for a third film was not a straightforward affair.
Instead, the movie’s box office success gave Wilson the leverage needed to negotiate a much higher salary for 2017’sPitch Perfect 3: $10 million.
“Cue the big bucks,” she writes, for the main cast members of the franchise. “Girl power!”
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(Left-right:) Rebel Wilson, Anna Kendrick in “Pitch Perfect 3”.Quantrell D. Colbert/Universal Pictures/ Everett
Quantrell D. Colbert/Universal Pictures/ Everett
Elsewhere inRebel Rising, Wilson writes about waiting tolose her virginityuntil age 35, her complicated relationship with her volatilefatherandher experienceworking withSacha Baron Cohen.
Through it all, theIsn’t It Romanticstar includes intimate insights into her relationship with body image, eating and how her weight affected both her career and personal life.Speaking to PEOPLElast month, Wilson said, “I got more attention for weight loss than any movie I’d ever done.”
She added that she wants the memoir “to give people the message, if they’re like me and an emotional eater, that it’s not about that stuff. It’s literally about working at a healthier way to deal with your emotions, and there is no magic solution.”
Rebel Risingis on bookshelves now.
source: people.com
