Name: Rebel Wilson on her 'year of health' during the pandemic - 100 Women, BBC World Service
Uploaded: 2022-07-05T23:02:25.000Z
Duration: 22 min 23 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Rebel Wilson, thank you so much  for talking to BBC 100 women.

I feel like I'm very BBC today as  well. I'm very serious… profesh.

I think you could almost be a newsreader for us.   I could, you know, ‘Coming up now at the 11:00  

No. ‘Breaking news’. Yeah, I  probably won't get hired from this.

It's so interesting because you are one of  the most high-profile actresses in Hollywood…

I'd say I'm in the top 1,000  for sure, I'd put myself…

You are one of the top 1,000. But have been  in those really iconic films that people  

watch over and over again, I think I might have  watched Bridesmaids an insane amount of times.    

That was my first job in America, and what a first  job to get to be in that kind of ensemble and  

to be in a movie that really, it was one of the  first, even though obviously women have been funny  

for at least 20 years - no, I'm joking: forever-,  Bridesmaids was one of the first where they were  

like ‘wow, women are funny in Hollywood’. So to  get that as my first job in America was epic.

And also to be in the Pitch Perfect  franchise, which is like the most  

successful musical comedy films of all time,  which blows my mind when you think about that. 

I was like ‘God, are they really?’ Yeah,  they really are like bang 1, 2 and 3,  

and that is so special. I'm sure it'll be eclipsed  at some point, you know, like an Olympic record:  

someone will come in and it might be better,  but it's so awesome to be a part of something  

so special and that so many people all around  the world have, like, really, really enjoyed.

you could have been a lawyer?   Well, I am a lawyer.

Yeah, I graduated in 2009. I  feel like I have the photo…

It's not my best smile, but I was very proud of  myself that day. This is 2009 when I graduated,  

it was a very happy day because I was already  obviously I was a professional actress, I'd been  

in 10 TV shows by the time I graduated from law  school, but there was something about me that I  

was like ‘I have to finish, I have to complete  this degree’. It was very, very difficult.  

In Australia, for law and medicine you need  the top marks in your final exams to get in and  

I got into like the best law school. So I was like ‘OK, I'm gonna  

graduate’ even though it was pretty  clear I was working in as an actress.

What was your parents reaction then when  you were like ‘I want to be an actress  

in Hollywood’. I always imagine that  those words would scare parents, right?

It was bad, it was really bad. I was a very  studious young lady, so yeah, they definitely  

thought I would do something good like a more  traditional type of job, put it that way.

So I took a gap year, which I thought  was really smart after high school,  

and I was what's called a youth ambassador  for Australia and based in southern Africa.  

That really changed the trajectory of my life. I  was going out in and out of malaria zones all the  

time with the work that I had to do over there,  and I got malaria really bad in rural Mozambique.  

And when I was in the hospital back in South  Africa recovering from it, I had a hallucination  

that I was an actress and… it was so real!   Everyone thought, no, she's just demented. But  

that was enough to convince me that's what my life  was going to be. So I come back to Australia and  

I go ‘guys, I'm going to become a professional  actress, I've seen it. I'm gonna win an Academy  

Award. It's like really good’, and everyone  was like ‘oh my God, like… no. You're an idiot,  

no one is gonna pick you, like you're not an  actress, you're naturally quite a shy person’.

I was like, yeah, but I've  seen the vision so I went  

and enrolled in law school, but did acting  sneaky at night to try to get in there.

Yeah, I mean that was big ‘cause they came  over for the premiere and they were like  

‘oh, she is like legit now’. Yeah.   It's interesting because I have read that  

you were successful with Bridesmaids at age 30.

Yeah, yeah, I came to Hollywood when I was 29.

And you called yourself a  late bloomer. Why is that?   

I definitely do think that. When I was 29 turning  30 and I had a great career at that point in  

Australia. And then I got off a big network TV  contract in Australia and I was like oh, but  

if I don't go now it's a bit late,  if you're already 30 or whatever  

to come to Hollywood as a woman. Although  there's many exceptions to that rule,  

and many ladies that have broken out in  their 50s and have incredible careers.

Yeah, you don't. You don't hear about it,  but normally maybe it's like the younger,  

more ingenue girls and then they develop more.

So I was just like ‘OK, if I don't go  now to Hollywood I'll never make it’,  

so I sold everything that I owned my car, my  computer, my apartment, everything. I came  

to America with one suitcase and like one little  pillow. But it was a bit late, and I was probably  

overqualified for the very  small role I had in Bridesmaids.

You are now producing, so you've got  credits in The Hustle and Isn't It Romantic…

Yeah, Isn't It Romantic was my first one, The  Hustle with Anne Hathaway, and then now Senior  

Year, which is a big cheerleading comedy. What's that like? Tell us a little bit  

It's great, great to have the power.  Because obviously coming up in the industry  

I had to work for like a lot of guys,  where you kind of get the crappier roles,  

the roles just weren't as well written or  as well developed, it would just be very  

hard to kind of put your comedy or your jokes  sometimes into if you didn't have any power.

So what I did is I use all those experiences  in a positive way and learn stuff  

from watching these guys, but really  wanted to get to the point where I had  

the power to make the movies and choose  the storylines and choose the characters  

and choose who I put in the movies. It's just  cool 'cause you can be more authentic and put  

more of your messages. My latest one is  just so girl power and there's so many…

This is the movie that you're directing next year?

You just shot and you are going  to be directing a movie as well.   

Yeah, I've now gone even further  and been offered a directing job  

for a movie script that I've written called  Girl Group, that'll go into production in 2022.  

And I'm so passionate about the stories I  want to tell, so why not go for the top job.

Talking of empowerment, you  have been in a year of health.   

Yeah, I didn't predict the pandemic, but weirdly,  sometimes I'm a little psychic and I go ‘oh,  

I feel like I'm not going to be working  much this year’, and I feel like turning  

40 I'm going to concentrate on my health.  I was dealing with fertility stuff and the  

doctors are like, ‘well yeah, if you're  healthier, you have better chances’.

So that all kind of culminated and the  moment it hit 2020 it was like, ‘OK, yeah,  

it's gonna be my year of health. I'm gonna  put it out publicly on Instagram and stuff  

for accountability’. But who knows  that whether that was the smartest?   

And why was that important  for you, to do it that way?

Because I did want to make a lasting change and  I wanted to be accountable to myself for it. So  

making it very public kind  of helped... It was risky,  

I guess, because before I had lost weight and then  put it back on and you get criticism sometimes  

for that. And it was just… yeah, I'll just  make it make the decision to make it public.

The number of headlines about you losing weight…

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Rebel Wilson on her 'year of health' during the pandemic - 100 Women, BBC World Service

stuff

insane

journey

character