‘People look at me like I’m crazy when I say I like exercise’
Hollywood superstar Rebel Wilson reveals her weight-loss transformation is definitely not easy
Think of Hollywood comedians and you instantly think of Rebel Wilson. The Australian A-lister became a household name in 2012 when she first starred as Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect. Since then, she’s appeared in mega hits including The Hustle and How To Be Single.
But now Rebel wants to make some serious changes to her career, even hinting that there’s a BBC drama in the pipeline. However, the 40-year-old actress believes that in order to achieve those career goals, she needs to start with her own personal transformation.
Beginning her journey at roughly 20st at Austria’s famous Vivamayr retreat, Rebel’s vowed to drop to 11½st by the end of the year, and is working relentlessly to get there – exercising up to six times a week with a personal trainer and radically transforming her diet. But Rebel refreshingly admits that it’s definitely not easy.
Here, the star, who’s currently hosting LOL: Last One Laughing Australia on Amazon Prime, tells us more…
Hey Rebel! Where in the world are you right now?
Sydney. I was in London. I was planning on making the move to London before this all hit. I was looking at apartments and suddenly the coronavirus was everywhere so I came back to Australia. Being here is very quiet and very chilled, we’ve done a great job in getting rid of the virus. But I’m sad because I can’t go gallivanting around the world and can’t go to Europe for the summer. But with the huge things going on in the world I shouldn’t care about stuff like that.
You’re moving to London?
Yeah. In terms of the creative arts, there’s so much cool stuff in TV and film and I personally think the highest quality stuff in the world is being shot out of London. And because I’m transitioning more into serious roles in my acting career, I’ve got UK representation now and just finished a whole series of meetings with very amazing UK talent. It’s delayed my plans to move over, but maybe next year it’ll be fine to do that. London’s so classy.
You look amazing…
Thank you. I literally feel as if I have to physically transform because, for some reason, even though we’re in a very imaginative industry, it’s very difficult for people to imagine me as a serious actress. I feel that I have to physically show you that I am different and I am transformed in order to help transform my career. I still love comedy and I will still work in the comedy space but I did train originally as a dramatic actress, which people forget.They know me as Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect. So I am deliberately trying to do more stuff and I think you’ll see me in a BBC series that we’ll now shoot next year, which’ll be really cool.
And how are you finding your new lifestyle?
It’s really difficult. I just love eating and I think I’m addicted to sugar. I was an emotional eater. People get shocked when I say I’m sporty and athletic.They look at me like I’m crazy when I say I love exercise. But when they get to know me they’re like, ‘Holy crap, you work out every day pretty much.’ And so for me it’s more about the mental side and there is no easy answer. Oprah is one of my role models and if there was an easy answer, Oprah would have found it. There is none and she struggles with similar things to a large extent. If I become very successful with the transformation I should write a book about it. It’s been hard but it all got started when I went to a health retreat in Austria and they reset my whole system. It’s a slow, gradual process and hopefully by the end of the year I’ll have reached my goals.
‘No more Fat Amy, I’m losing weight to be a serious actress’
LOL: Last One Laughing is a great show…
It’s pretty edgy.
Do you like the presenting side of things?
I shot this and [dog grooming show] Pooch Perfect back to back and had never done hosting really before. I’ve been around the track and done a lot of TV and movies, but not technically hosting. To me the selling point of LOL is that it was a platform for 10 of Australia’s best comedians and this goes out globally to over 200 countries. It’s hard in Australia – basically only two people get their own comedy TV shows over here. It’s a small industry in that respect and shows like this are a fantastic opportunity for them to get their names and their comedy out there. Even if it’s not representative of their stand-up material, the audience gets to know them a little bit through this show.
You’ve achieved so much, too, so it must inspire them…
Obviously, I’ve done so well in my career and so anything that gives a platform to others I’m happy to do. When I was younger, Nicole Kidman gave me a scholarship and I was able to go overseas with it and that was really awesome.
How did Nicole Kidman find you?
I had to audition and it was a scholarship that was run over