During the pandemic, shes been reassessing her life. Ive come here to la, where rebel is now based, for this bbc 100 women interview. We talk about why she lost weight, her challenges with fertility, and how shes balancing that with her professional move into becoming a director, and she talks to me about how shes hoping that move will empower her to make cultural changes in the industry after experiencing Sexual Harassment herself. Rebel wilson, thank you so much for talking to bbc 100 women. It is my pleasure. How are you . I feel like im very bbc today as well im very serious, profesh. I think you could almost, like, be a newsreaderfor us. I could, you know. Coming up now at the am hour wait, is that what they say . No. Coming up breaking news, um, yeah i i probably wont get hired from this. Its so interesting because you are one of the most high profile actresses in hollywood. Id say youre a household name. Im in the top 1,000, for sure, id put myself. Youre one of the top 1,000 actresses in hollywood. But you have been in those really iconic films that people watch over and over again like, i think i might� ve watched bridesmaids an insane amount of times. I mean, that was My Firstjob In America and, like, what a firstjob, to get to be in that kind of ensemble and to be in a movie that, really, was one of the first even though, obviously, women have been funny for at least 20 years but, no, imjoking, forever but that bridesmaids was one of the first where they were like, wow women are funny in hollywood and so to get that as my My Firstjob 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 . And theyre like, yeah they really are, like, bang, one, two and three, and im like its so special. And im sure it will be eclipsed at some point you know, its like 0lympic records someone will come in and, like, be better. But its its so awesome to be a part of something so special and its something that people All Around The World and really, really enjoyed. Yeah. Is it true, though, that you couldve been a lawyer . Well, i am a lawyer. Oh, you are a lawyer . yeah, i graduated in 2009. So you could be a lawyer. Ifeel like i have the photo. Its not my best smile but i was very proud of myself that day. You look so happy and pleased this is 2009 when i graduated. It was a very happy day because was already, obviously, i was a professional actress id been in 10 tv shows by the time i graduated law school but there was something about me that was like i have to finish. I have to complete this degree. It was very, very difficult like, in australian law and medicine, you know, 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, im going to, like, graduate, even though it was 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 imagined though that that those words scare parents, right . It was bad. It was really bad. I was a very studious young lady, so yeah, they they definitely thought i would do something good like like a more traditional type job, put it that way. So i took a gap year, which i thought was really smart after high school, and i was whats called a Youth Ambassador for australia, based in southern africa, so that really changed the trajectory of my life. I was going in and out of Malarial Zones all the time with the work that i had to do over there, and i got malaria really bad when we were in 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, like, it was so real everyone thought, no, shesjust demented, but that was enough to convince me that thats what my life was gonna be. So i come back to australia and i go, guys, im going to become a professional actress i have seen it, im gonna win an Academy Award. Its, like, really good, and everyone was like, oh, my god. Like, no. Like, youre an idiot. Like, no one� s gonna pick you, like, youre not an actress. Like, youre not youre naturally quite a shier person. I was like, yeah, but ive seen the vision. So i went and enrolled in law school but did acting sneaky at night to try and get in there, yeah. So what about, like, so when bridesmaids took off, was that. Yeah, i mean, that was big because they came they came over for the premiere and they were like, oh, she is like legit now, yeah. Its interesting because i have read that you you were successful with bridesmaids at age 30. Yeah, yeah, i came to hollywood when i was. And you call yourself a late bloomer. I definitely do think that. Why, though . I was 29, turning 30, and i had a great career in australia at that point and then, i got offered a big Network Tv Contract in australia and i was like, oh, but if i dont go now. Like, its a bit late if youre already 30 or whatever, to come to hollywood, i think, as a woman although theres many exceptions to that rule and many ladies that have broken out in their 50s and stuff and have incredible careers. You dont hear enough about that, do we . Yeah, you dont hear about it but normally. Because i think 30s still young. Its like the younger, more Ingenue Girls and then they develop more, so i wasjust, like, ok, if i dont go now to hollywood, ill 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 like. 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 youve got credits on the hustle and isnt it romantic . Yes, isnt it romantic was my first one. The hustle, with anne hathaway, and now senior year, which is a big cheerleading comedy. Whats that like . Tell us a little bit about what how its different. Its great, its great to have the power because obviously coming up in the industry, i had to work for, like, a lot of guys, coming up where you kind of get the crappier roles like, the rolesjust werent as well written, as well developed. It would just be very hard to kind of put kind of you comedy or yourjokes sometimes into it if you didnt have any power. So what i did is i used all those experiences in a positive way and, like, learned stuff from watching these guys and 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 and its just cool � cause you can be more authentic and put more of your messages and my latest one, its just so girl power and theres so many. And this is your movie that youre directing next year . Uh, no, this is the one ivejust shot. Youve just shot that . Yeah, just shot. And you are gonna you are directing a movie as well . Yeah, and then ive now now gone even further and been offered a Directing Job for a movie script that ive written called girl group, so thatll go into production in 2022. And im so passionate about the stories i want to tell and so, why not go for the topjob . Talking of empowerment, youve been on a year of health. Yeah. I didnt predict the pandemic but weirdly, i thought sometimes im a little psychic and i go oh, ifeel like im not gonna be working much this year and i feel like turning 40, im gonna, like, concentrate on my health and i was dealing with Fertility Stuff and the doctor is like, well, you know, if you were healthier, youd have better chances, so that all kind of culminated, and so the moment it hit 2020, i was like 0k, yeah, its gonna be my year of health. Im gonna put it, like, publicly out on instagram and stuff for accountability but i think that thats. And who knows whether that was the smartest but. And why was that important for you to do it that way . Um, 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 helped. It was risky, i guess. Before i i had lost weight and then put it back on and, you know, you get criticism sometimes for that, and it wasjust, yeah, ijust was like, 0k, illjust make it make the decision to make it public. The the number of headlines about you losing weight has been phenomenal. Oh, its insane. Because i look at what happened for me in 2019 i had, like, four pretty successful movies come out and, like, had done all this amazing stuff career wise but then in the next year, all i did was just lose 80 pounds. And, like, the attention that gets. It was insane. Is way more than being in an Academy Award nominated film and, like, producing my first movie and then doing all this stuff. Can i can i read you one headline . Oh, yeah, sure. Rebel wilson has a bond girl moment in an incredible curve hugging swimsuit. Wow. How do you feel about those words . I never thought id be described anywhere near a bond girl but how do you feel about those sorts of headlines about your weight loss . Ive noticed that its been getting a lot of attention and i go so, is that what a woman has to do in the world is lose just lose weight to, like, get attention . For me, it was so much bigger. It was aboutjust being the healthiest version of me, so it wasnt about the size or a number or whatever. But its fascinating why are people so obsessed with it . Like, i know what its like to be a woman who is essentially invisible to most people because of not being seen as, like, traditionally beautiful or whatever, so i know what its like when nobody holds the door open for you or or, you know, just looks that you almost like you can have no value because youre not seen as good looking to them, so i know what thats like. And then you really notice you get, like, this bias towards you, just purely because of your appearance, which is wrong like i do think it is wrong but its you cant deny that thats how society does operate, so. Its kind of conflicting. It it must leave you feeling a bit mixed about it because on one hand, like, you shouldnt have to lose weight to be suddenly be treated nicely. No, no, and im proud that the message has got across is that it wasnt aboutjust losing weight, it was just about me being healthier overall, and thats what thats what im trying to encourage other people out there, because that is should be the goal. It never be to fit some certain weird Beauty Standard that society deems is the Beauty Standard of this year, or it should never be about that. My, like, body type before, when i was a size 16 to 18, was, like, the body type of the 17th, 18th century. Like, iwould have crushed in that era. But i got a lot of pushback from my own team, actually, here in hollywood, when i said ok, im gonna do this year of health. Im gonna ifeel like im really going to physically transform and Change My Life and they were like, why . Why would you want to do that . Because i was earning millions of dollars being, you know, the funny fat girl, like, and being that person, and i go, well, because even though i was still very confident being bigger and, you know, loved myself you know, would rock a red carpet and even though i was probably double the size, sometimes triple the weight of other actresses, but like, i still felt confident in that. But i knew deep down inside some of the Emotional Eating behaviours i was doing was not healthy. Like, i did not need a tub of ice cream every night that was me, you know, numbing emotions by using food, which wasnt the healthiest thing. Was that dealing with fame . I think it was i think it was dealing with not being a natural performer and having to perform almost every day and just things i hadnt kind of processed or dealt with in my life that that was manifesting as Emotional Eating and then i was like thats not the healthiest this was when i first got pretty famous after Pitch Perfect and im like look at me im, you know, rocking, like, a black leather bodysuit, custom made. I love that person. Like, yeah, she was struggling with Emotional Eating but i also, like, just love that girl and i love that she was just out there, living her best life, playing this character called fat amy and, like, andjust, like, getting out there and crushing it. With with the character of fat amy, you know, there were those sort of fat jokes that were made as well. Do you feel now you cant do that . Well, see, its weird i looked at fat amy and the Pitch Perfect scripts and go thats the best character, i personally thought, so i would be honoured to play that character. I never thought of it as a negative because im the type of person that some people see, yeah, being biggeras, like, a hindrance to being an actress and i go im gonna use it and use it for my comedy. There were some people that said oh, well, will she not be funny now . And im like well, check out my new movie, senior year, coming out and see what you think, guys. What it has done career wise is open up this whole other door of, like, dramatic roles and so now, ive this great movie that i just shot in the north of england called the almond and the seahorse, based on a west end play and would i have been given that role if i was bigger . I dont know. Because people would still might associate me too much with some of the comedy roles and physically transforming and giving a performance that is so different, i think it helped, looking different. Id be interested to know if you feel that pressure of being put on a pedestal when it comes to the body positivity movement. Yeah, i guess. I mean, because i was somebody who was, like, really advocates for, like, loving loving yourself and at whatever size, and you want to, like, love and embrace yourself and be positive about your body youre only given that body, so that is what youve got to work with, thats your canvas but also, i dont want to be seen to, like, promote unhealthiness or extreme, you know, and some of the things that i was doing emotionally eating and carrying the extra weight was was unhealthy. So what im trying to do is say you can be whatever size you want. Just try to be the healthiest version of you and that can look different for different people. Youve shared your weight loss journey on instagram and youve got millions of followers on social media. Are you conscious of the sorts of pressures, i guess, there are for young women as well on social media . Oh, yeah, because now if you get into this culture of, like, touching up all of your photos and whatever, its unrealistic and but i dont know, but then im definitely guilty of, like, posting Thirst Trap Photos on instagram mainly because im still single so im like oh, yeah, 0k. Thats mainly why i do it. I didnt think it could be contributing to some larger problem in society, which i hope it isnt and then, if so. You never thought about that. . Ifeel like, yeah, i may ive grown into my looks 100 and, like, feel like im at 41 now, like, looking, yeah, better than i ever have before which i think is rare. Most people peak, dont they, at like 20 . And maybe for me, its about My Life Journey Coming into line, you know, and for me, it only kind but what i try to do is share just enough that hopefully people can understand, like, some of the struggles ive been through and then, and like the reason why i share it is to hopefully help people, so why ive been sharing things about fertility or talking about a Health Transformation and Emotional Eating is ultimately to try to help people. The Fertility Issue that youve talked about, thats really personal and intimate. Yeah, i have something i was diagnosed when i was, like, 20 with something called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and which made sense, like, that i gained a lot of weight rapidly with that and then have Fertility Issues and so, its like, i think Something Like 10 of women have it, so its very common, and a lot of people dont know they have it and so, its just i think its just good to talk thats why i love when everybody opens up about all sorts of things now. Mental health is obviously a big topic with a lot of celebs and people high profile people talking about that, yeah. But fertility is a really interesting one because i dont think a lot of women, certainly in the public eye, open up about it. Behind the scenes, like, all my actress friends are all freezing their eggs and all kind of Pursuing Options and so, we all talk about it, but not just not so publicly sometimes because it can be an emotional Roller Coaster and i certainly, you know, froze went all this trouble and froze my eggs and then, unfortunately because of my condition, the quality of the eggs wasnt wasnt good enough and i have to repeat the process and keep doing it and keep trying and put a lot of effort in. And that was part of the reason why i tried to get healthier as well. Im still trying on the fertilityjourney, even though, like, it is emotional and you get hopeful and then, you know, your hopes are dashed and so its like, ifeel that any woman going through it, but i was the classic example of, like, a career woman who went out into the world, didnt even think about kids and then suddenly, in your mid 30s, is like oh, hang on do i want that as an option . And if i do, what do i need to do . It could be great if i had my own children but i dont know whether thats gonna happen and so, im trying not to have any expectations set on an outcome, just that im the healthiest i can be, im gonna try and what will happen will happen. You tweeted a few years back about Sexual Harassment that you had experienced in the industry. Yep. And you had said at the time you were no longer going to be polite about it. Tell me a little bit more about what happened to you if you want to. Yeah, um, i mean. And how you dealt with it. I guess, in terms of Sexual Harassment, like, all women in the industry have had, like, things like the little comments when youve been in meetings and youve be try to be One Of The Boys and, like, laugh along with the jokes and even though theyre talking about other actresses and stuff in a way thats, like, not really cool. But i only had, like, two incidents. One is the classic with a director in a hotel room that was in australia. And i was so innocent and naive i was in my 20s, and i literally thought i was going to that to have a meeting about comedy and talk about comedy. And then, he kept trying to give me more and more . Lcohol and im nota big drinker, luckily, and then, the director gets a call from his wife and im sitting there on the couch and it was one of those phones that if somebody left a message, you could hear it through the speaker of the phone, and she started saying 0h, youve got rebel in that hotel room. Like, youre going to sleep with her, blah, blah, blah. And i heard the message and that was the first time i thought oh, my god. Like, what is this . Whats going on . And then ijust grabbed my bag and got out of there, luckily, before anything had happened. And i wonder if that woman if i hadnt heard her voice on the phone, screaming through the phone, i what couldve happened . I dont know. Did you tell anyone at the time . No, because it was a big directorand i didnt. And youve never named names . No, maybe thats the legal side of me that you dont i dont want to go through any unnecessary court cases 01 whatever. And, yeah, ijust yeah, just got on with the job and did it and luckily, nothing else happened, apart from that one night. And then, many years later, as im in hollywood and, you know, pretty pretty famous, the Pitch Perfect movies had come out and stuff and had a male co star was onset, summons me kind of out of my trailer in the middle of the day and takes me to, like, this room, where a couple of his male buddies are, with their iphones, and he pulls down his pants and asked me to bleep. And i know, again, like, it can kind of sound comic, the way i tell the story, because ive processed it now and i was in shock. I was like whats going on . Just kept saying no. Like what is this . Like no. And his buddies are laughing and hes kind of clearly getting off on it. This was before me too, though, so i didnt quite know what to do and i was in a foreign country, so i called my agent, i reported it, we reported it to the studio i was apparently the fourth woman to have made a complaint against this guy, too but i stayed and i finished the job which i felt like it was the professional thing to do which now, i wouldnt do, if Something Like that occurs. Now, i think i have the courage to be like. Im walking. Ok, that is disgusting. 0bviously some people have been picked up in the Metoo Movement but theres a lot of others that that havent and now, and now i think it would be different i wouldnt have as much empathy. Is that what you mean when you say youre going no longer be polite moving forward . Yeah. Its not like things change overnight with the Metoo Movement and then suddenly its all safe, and. Its not. There have been very positive changes but there still there still need to be more. But i guess those are the changes that you can make now that youre in these roles as a producer and director. Yeah, and so, like, on my movie senior year that ijust produced, i had, like, a young actress play the younger version of me and she came came over from australia, so shes in a foreign country, shes vulnerable and ijust said, like, if you have any any issues, if anybody is doing something, you know, or says something or whatever, please come to me as the female Producer On The Film and i want to particularly, you know, protect and i had a lot of young cast in that movie and just i feel very conscious of, like, you know, making sure they feel safe. Are you hopeful that youll win an Academy Award one day . Is that your aim . Uh, yeah, that that would be the goal. And i was so lucky to be injojo rabbit, that got nominated for, like, best picture that was such a gorgeous movie and i think and then now, you know, doing projects that have a really good cachet, thats thats awesome, but i still will do the comedies as well, obviously. Yeah, ican� t. Yeah, i think thats what people wouldnt want you to leave. No, i cant thats my thats my love as well. Hello there. It was cold over the weekend. Some areas saw quite a bit of rain and we had some snow over northern hills. Similar story as we start the new week. Weve got a frontal system working its way in from the atlantic. Thats going to bring another round of rain and hill snow. You can see it here showing up on that pressure chart. It will be very wet across Northern Ireland, parts of scotland, western england and wales to start this morning. Quite quickly, though, it will brighten up across Northern Ireland with sunshine and showers. But this band of rain will continue its Journey Eastwards through the day, eventually crossing most of england. Well see some snow over the pennines as well. There could be a bit of a hang back of The Rain For East Anglia in the far south east, otherwise it brightens up for many of us with some good spells of sunshine. Most of the showers will be in the north and the west, some of these heavy and frequent, and there will be some wintriness over the high ground. A cold day to come we could see nine or ten degrees in the far south west. It stays breezy with blustery showers, wintry on the hills through monday night. Then it turns a little bit drier, but clear and cold for many of us. And then in the south west, we start to see an area of wet and very windy weather pushing up across ireland and then into irish sea coasts. Now, its all tied in with this the second named storm of the season named storm barra by the Irish Met Service because its ireland that will see the biggest impacts from this storm through the course of tuesday. But across the rest of the uk, well see gusts widely 50mph, more than that near exposed coasts in the south and the west. That, mixed in with the heavy rain and also some hill snow, is likely to cause some disruption, even some damage. So, it starts very wet, very windy indeed across Western Areas damaging gusts of wind. This area of rain pushes eastwards into the cold air, so likely to see some significant snow over the pennines, certainly across the scottish hills. And some of this rain, really, will be quite heavy, so a pretty atrocious looking day, i think, for tuesday. Stay tuned to the forecast details may change. As we move out of tuesday into wednesday, storm barra begins to weaken and it sits across the uk, we think, as it does weaken. Still be quite a windy day, i think, on wednesday not as windy as tuesday, but a blustery one nonetheless with showers or longer spells of rain. These will be wintry over the Higher Ground as the air� s still cold, and well see gales across south Western Areas, too, and its going to feel chilly those temperatures in Single Digits across the board. Like oh, yeah, 0k. Welcome to bbc news, im david eades. Our top stories pope francis warns europe against narrow Self Interest over the treatment of migrants as he pays a visit to the greek island of lesbos. Translation let us not| let our sea be transformed into a sea of death. Afghanistans ruling taliban say theyre prepared us politicians pay tribute to former republican senator and president ial candidate bob dole, who has died at the age of 98. Japan goes on a Hydrogen Drive in a bid to reach zero Carbon Emissions by 2050. But what fuel is being used to produce the hydrogen . We have a special report. 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