Rebel Wilson has alleged that the producers of her directorial debut — a musical called The Deb — are blocking the film from premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, claiming that the project was selected as the closing night film for TIFF 2024.
Wilson also claimed that The Deb producers — Amanda Ghost, Gregory Cameron and Executive Producer Vince Holden— embezzled the film's funds and tried to "bury" it. According to Wilson, the trio acted with "absolute viciousness" and "retaliatory behaviour" by pulling the film from the festival.
Here's what Wilson had to say in a video posted to her social media:
So you might have noticed that I did a post like a week ago about my film. It's the first film that I've directed that I'm so proud of, The Deb, which is a little Australian original musical that is so cute. And it's awesome that it got selected for closing night of the Toronto Film Festival, which is like the best platform to be a first-time female director. I mean, it's huge. It's massive.
So to have the joy of the movie being selected is one thing. But then to have the business partners that are involved in that movie turn around and say that, 'No, the movie can't premiere,' is just beyond devastating. Why are they saying this? Why are they stopping it from premiering at Toronto? Well, this dates back to October of last year, where I discovered bad behaviour by these business partners. I just tell it how it is. So I'm just going to tell you who they are, the so-called producers of the film. I use that phrase very lightly. Their names are Amanda Ghost and Gregory Cameron, and an executive producer who works with them called Vince Holden. So these are the people involved."
Wilson went on:
And so I reported their bad behaviour when I found out. It was not minor things but big things, you know, inappropriate behaviour towards the lead [actor] and embezzling funds from the film's budget which we really needed because we're a small movie. So kind of really important things. Since I reported that behaviour, I have been met with absolute viciousness and retaliatory behaviour. So I'm there on set. I'm trying to film my movie with my gorgeous Australian cast and crew who are so amazing — shout out to all of you guys. And yet every step of the way, these people who I complained about then tried to make my life hell.
She closed by calling the producers' behaviour "vile and disgusting," saying, "I won't be threatened. I will speak the truth and warn people about these people in the industry who are just not behaving ethically... Yeah, so that's my dilemma. If the movie doesn't play at Toronto, it's because of these absolute fuckwits."
See Wilson's video below.