Rebel Wilson: The Truth About Sacha Baron Cohen! Trauma Was The Reason I Couldn't Lose Weight!

1. 0:00 – 2:14

   Intro

   1. RWRebel Wilson0:00

      It was the worst professional experience of my career. And this was before the Me Too movement. I felt humiliated and degraded.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett0:07

      What can you say about that experience?

   3. RWRebel Wilson0:11

      (exhales)

   4. SBSteven Bartlett0:11

      Rebel Wilson, an award-winning Hollywood superstar.

   5. RWRebel Wilson0:16

      Okay, here we go. My dad would say horrible things to my mum. "Fat, lazy cow. No one will ever love you." And I had issues with food 'cause I had low self-worth, and that's why I would trash my body. I felt my life wasn't gonna be anything. But then, I found motivational tapes that said- The brave put down their fears and go forward. And so I decided to go out into the world and make a name for myself. And then I noticed on stage that people like laughing at bigger people. I thought, "I could use this to my advantage." I gained all this weight. My body was, like, at 102 kilos. And then I came to America, and now I'm making millions of dollars from playing the fat, funny girl. I'm living this amazing life. But you achieve it, and then it's not enough. And I was still a virgin. I'd never dated properly. And this biological clock, you could hear it going, "Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick." I went to the fertility doctor, and the doctor looks me up and down and goes, "You're not healthy." And then, like, it really sunk in, "I've gotta fix this." But as soon as I started telling people in my team, they're like, "Oh, no, no, no. Why would you wanna lose weight? 'Cause then you'd lose your multi-million dollar career. You just gonna throw it away?"

   6. SBSteven Bartlett1:22

      Was that your hardest moment?

   7. RWRebel Wilson1:24

      No. The darkest point in my life was when I was 13 and...

   8. SBSteven Bartlett1:31

      Congratulations, Diary of a CEO gang. We've made some progress. 63% of you that listen to this podcast regularly don't subscribe, which is down from 69%. Our goal is 50%. So if you've ever liked any of the videos we've posted, if you like this channel, can you do me a quick favor and hit the subscribe button? It helps this channel more than you know. And the bigger the channel gets, as you've seen, the bigger the guests get. Thank you, and enjoy this episode. Rebel, I, I think to understand somebody, you have to understand their earliest context. And as I read through your book, Rebel Rising, which is out now, I was surprised in many ways. But also,

2. 2:14 – 4:06

   Being A Very Shy Kid

   1. SBSteven Bartlett2:14

      the person that I'd seen on a screen made sense in a bunch of different ways. So, let me throw that question to you as the first question, which is, if I, if I was to endeavor to understand you, what do I need to know about your earliest context?

   2. RWRebel Wilson2:28

      Yeah, I guess some people see you on screen, and they have this image of what you were like. Um, and often, I guess people would think some overly confident, uh, very confident in her sexuality and, uh, you know, just a kind of brash, ballsy person. But, uh, from my upbringing, uh, I mean, I think I couldn't be more the opposite. I mean, I grew up in a pretty regular suburban Australian upbringing, but was extremely shy to the point where, like, you'd never think that I would choose entertainment for a career. Like, that would just be unimaginable, uh, for this ex- like bordering on some kind of social disorder shyness. And, and then coming from quite a humble beginning of being in a family where we made money selling pet products out of a yellow caravan at dog shows. And so driving around the country to these dog shows and selling, like, pooper scoopers to pick up the poop for the dogs, and, uh, brushes and leads for the dogs, and, and all these things. And so it wasn't... Also, I was allergic to dogs, so that's why-

   3. SBSteven Bartlett3:40

      (laughs)

   4. RWRebel Wilson3:40

      ... my, uh, (laughs) my childhood always felt a little bit uncomfortable. Which I never realized why until later when I got tested as an adult, um, that I was allergic. And, uh, and so I think by, by writing the book, uh, people can see this whole other dimension of me and kind of maybe why I have the personality that, that I have now.

3. 4:06 – 5:19

   My Family And Their Struggles

   1. RWRebel Wilson4:06

   2. SBSteven Bartlett4:06

      What about your parents?

   3. RWRebel Wilson4:07

      So, my mum was a school teacher in, in state schools. Um, so had a lot of, like, refugee students and students that came in not knowing English. And, and she mainly taught kindergarten, so, like, all these kids. So she's just, like, a light, you know, light of a woman. Like, just a brilliant teacher, helped so many young people. And for some parts of my childhood, she was just a stay-at-home, um, mum. Which I shouldn't say "just" 'cause now I'm realizing, uh, being a mum (laughs) is, like, the hardest thing ever. And then my dad was someone who... His, his father died, uh, suddenly when he was 18 in his final year of high school. Uh, so, uh, I think that through his life, what was supposed to be his life, off course, and he kinda had emotional issues from, from losing his dad suddenly that young, um, and in a tragic way. So he, um, he had, I believe, you know, wanted to be a businessman and wanted to be successful. But I guess because of his own emotional issues and stuff, didn't quite fully achieve his, his potential.

4. 5:19 – 8:41

   My Dad's Angry Issues

   1. RWRebel Wilson5:19

   2. SBSteven Bartlett5:19

      How do you know that your father didn't quite achieve his potential? What were, like, the symptoms of that? 'Cause you seem to be quite sure that that, that was, um, causal in something.

   3. RWRebel Wilson5:30

      I think 'cause he was so angry all the time, and money was a source of, um, uh, fighting in the, in the household. So, uh, and I'd just, like... So for example, we'd go to the racetrack with the horses, and my dad sometimes would own, like, one tenth or one twentieth of a race horse in a syndicate. Um, and he'd look at the other high flyers, the rich people who had had a lot of money and were successful and people knew their names and stuff, and I definitely saw that he wanted to be that, but he wasn't that.... nobody was coming up to him and shaking his hand or admiring him. And then in one of the, um, chapters of the book, I write about, I found this gym bag in the back of his car, and it was full of all these cassettes, and I just took them. Nobody ever said anything, uh, why they were there or what, and I noticed they were all motivational tapes, um, and the one that I clearly remember was, uh, one called How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I think this was my father's way of trying to improve himself and trying to be better, and a lot of the tapes were about business, about selling and, um, how to be better in, in business. And, and so I feel like wha- even though we never openly discussed it, I feel like why would he have those kind of things, 'cause he wanted to better himself. I just don't think he had the, the ability to. And then his life just didn't go in the way that he wanted to, and I think, uh, because of the death of his father, he just never seemed to be able to process emotions properly. Um, that was the best way... eh, probably nowadays you would go to someone and get diagnosed with what kind of issues you had or seek therapy or, or something like that to get over the trauma, but I guess back in Australia in those days, that wasn't a thing, um, and so he was a man who just, you know, wanted to be better but then just couldn't, like, uh, just didn't have the skills, the emotional skills.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett7:41

      That trauma eventually finds an outlet either way. If you don't address it through, like, therapy, it finds other ways to manifest itself, and what were those-

   5. RWRebel Wilson7:47

      Yeah.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett7:48

      ... ways?

   7. RWRebel Wilson7:48

      And I think with him, it was being, uh, angry, and he would d- just turn from all of sudden talking normally to-

   8. SBSteven Bartlett7:56

      Mm-hmm.

   9. RWRebel Wilson7:57

      ... he would go really red in the face, like, just, like, uh, just, it was almost like a red balloon suddenly, like his face would almost expand and he'd go really red, and he'd just have these absolutely, like, angry outbursts where he'd do and say horrible things, and, and I think that, that was probably stemming from when he lost his father in an unfair way, um, and, and he just didn't know how to deal with it. So probably, li- you know, if he was now, and if, uh, you know, I would be like, "Oh, you know, you should talk to pe- someone, a professional, and process your emotions properly," and but, but then back then, I guess we didn't, we didn't really know what to do or say. That was just his personality.

5. 8:41 – 10:29

   Doing Weird Things As A Child

   1. RWRebel Wilson8:41

   2. SBSteven Bartlett8:41

      To bring this into, into light, I guess, the, the example you give in the book is when you're, I think you're 12 or something years old, and you decide... you were young, it was the summer, it was hot-

   3. RWRebel Wilson8:51

      Yeah.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett8:51

      ... and you decide to wet the bed to cool yourself down.

   5. RWRebel Wilson8:53

      Mm-hmm. Yeah, we got back from a dog show, and it was really hot. Sometimes in Australia, we have, like, these really hot, like, 36-degree days, and so we thought, "Well, we'll pour water all over the mattress (laughs) to, like, wet it down so we'd kinda be lying in coolness." Um, and then my father came in and just... he thought, I think, we'd literally wet the bed, you know, like-

   6. SBSteven Bartlett9:16

      Yeah. (laughs)

   7. RWRebel Wilson9:16

      ... gone to the toilet on the bed, which we never would've done. We were, like... looking back, we were, like, the most well-behaved children you could imagine. Um, and he just, like, uh, he just... it was like a s- flick, a switch would flick, uh, you know, and he'd just go really angry and would just start whacking us, and it was just, um, uh, it was... I don't know, it just seemed to... eh, just something would tick him off or something, and he'd just lose it, um, a- and that was one of the incidents. But I was really young. I think I was about eight.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett9:53

      Okay.

   9. RWRebel Wilson9:53

      And my sister was six, Liberty, and when I spoke to her about writing the book and she was like, she doesn't totally remember that exact instance, but she remembers several others that are very similar-

   10. SBSteven Bartlett10:04

       Mm-hmm.

   11. RWRebel Wilson10:05

       ... um, of things, but that one I just remembered really clearly, and then I felt like a terrible person 'cause I thought, "Oh, well, why did I wet the sheets and the mattress? And I was trying to cool down, but that was wrong, and I should never have been naughty like that." Um, and it just kinda, um, yeah, really stuck to me, that, that particular time, but that was something that would happen, uh, you know, quite

6. 10:29 – 11:40

   Emotional Abuse

   1. RWRebel Wilson10:29

      a bit.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett10:29

      And y- this sort of physical aggression-

   3. RWRebel Wilson10:34

      Mm-hmm.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett10:34

      ... and emotional abuse would continue to your mother as well? It would extend to your mother as well?

   5. RWRebel Wilson10:40

      Yeah, more with my mum it was more emotional abuse like, um, come home and say, "Oh, you fat, lazy cow. What have you done all day?" Um, uh, stuff like, "Ugh, no one will ever love you," um, just like these comments that would just come constantly and also more financial abuse. Like, he'd take control of the finances but then go and gamble with the money, and then we'd have no money, and, um, so, so more with that, um, but with the kids, it was more the, you know, the physical hitting, which was not, uh, was not that uncommon in the area I grew up in. I mean, I know now, like, I could never think of hitting my child. Now I just would never, but back then, it wa- it was quite common, and we did have family friends that their dad would hit them with a belt, which was kind of a bit even worse, um, so we kind of felt like, like we didn't know anything that different. It was quite common.

7. 11:40 – 14:06

   My Parents Divorce

   1. RWRebel Wilson11:40

   2. SBSteven Bartlett11:40

      I, I ask those particular questions because it... I often think that we learn our first model of what love is and what a relationship is by what we observe with our parents.

   3. RWRebel Wilson11:49

      Mm-hmm.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett11:49

      And for me, I know for sure that watching my parents, how they interacted left me with a message that I absolutely do not wanna be in a romantic relationship, and I avoided that-

   5. RWRebel Wilson11:58

      Ah.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett11:58

      ... for my whole life. (laughs)

   7. RWRebel Wilson11:59

      Yeah, that's probably why I never dated anybody ever.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett12:03

      (laughs)

   9. RWRebel Wilson12:03

      (laughs) Um, because I saw my parents... my mum kind of became a shell of a woman and had to-... have every ounce of strength in order to get out of that relationship eventually when I was, like, 16, 17. And that left me thinking, "I will never get married. Um, I- I don't wanna be in a partnership with somebody. Like, this is terrible." Uh, because often when my dad would have his outbursts or whatever, it was always at home. It was not in public. It was not around other people. It was, like, just, uh, just when we were at home. And I went, "Who would want that?" Like, there was nothing loving about it, and, and I think even though I had one boyfriend when I was 16 (laughs) and, and then he, uh, cheated on me with a friend, and, and then I was like, "That's it." And I... and then from then, throughout the whole of my teenage and 20s, like, did not date one person because I guess I, I didn't wanna be like my mother and, and have this, like, awful thing happen that... You know, obviously now the story's great for mom. She's now, um, engaged to a great man and who's awesome and so kind and loving. But, uh, my only representation, I guess, was their marriage, and it was awful. Like, it was just... Yeah, even when they separated, it took seven years to, uh, where, and basically left them- my mom with nothing because all the money went to the lawyers, um, from the separation costs. And I was just like, "Ugh," like, "Why would I want that?"

   10. SBSteven Bartlett13:40

       Mm-hmm.

   11. RWRebel Wilson13:40

       I go, "No, I would like to be successful and go out into the world and make a name for myself, and a romantic relationship would only cause me pain, only drag me down, uh, not allow me to be my true self." Um, so I thought... Yeah, I just thought I would never, I never wanted one. Until you get real lonely when you become successful, and then you're like, "Oh, maybe."

8. 14:06 – 17:08

   How Your Dad's Trauma Impacted You

   1. RWRebel Wilson14:06

      (laughs)

   2. SBSteven Bartlett14:07

      (laughs)

   3. RWRebel Wilson14:07

      "Maybe things can change."

   4. SBSteven Bartlett14:08

      What am I gonna do with all this stuff? (laughs)

   5. RWRebel Wilson14:09

      Yeah. (laughs)

   6. SBSteven Bartlett14:10

      "I think some of my darkness comes..." This is a quote from your book.

   7. RWRebel Wilson14:13

      Mm-hmm.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett14:13

      "I think some of my darkness comes from my dad. There is definitely convict history on that side of my family, a lot of dodginess." When you say, "A lot of my darkness," it's- it's interesting 'cause I remember sitting with Tim Grover, who I reference a lot, and Tim Grover was the guy who coached Michael Jordan and, um, Kobe Bryant for pretty much, you know, this, most significant parts of their career.

   9. RWRebel Wilson14:33

      Oh, yeah. I think I've listened to that episode.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett14:35

       Oh, really?

   11. RWRebel Wilson14:35

       Yeah, yeah.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett14:35

       Oh, okay.

   13. RWRebel Wilson14:36

       Yeah.

   14. SBSteven Bartlett14:36

       Amazing, and he-

   15. RWRebel Wilson14:36

       I'm big on basketball fan, yeah.

   16. SBSteven Bartlett14:38

       Yeah, yeah, he's a- it was incredible. And one of the things he said to me earlier was that everyone has their dark side.

   17. RWRebel Wilson14:43

       Mm-hmm.

   18. SBSteven Bartlett14:43

       And then which i- is often from their early experiences and all those kinds of things, and then it's often our light side is often created by our dark side in many respects.

   19. RWRebel Wilson14:52

       Yeah.

   20. SBSteven Bartlett14:53

       So i- i- it... I see shades of what I would guess was your dark side in, in those early years of, of your, um, story. But when you say that your dark side probably came from your father, what are you referring to?

   21. RWRebel Wilson15:04

       So I kind of feel like, um, the... I have friends in the industry, right, who have had, like, quite awesome childhoods and, you know, and, and to me, sometimes in their work they come across as very vanilla. Uh, and then I was thinking about, I go, "Why aren't they as interesting or something?" And they're great and they're talented, but they're just not as interesting. And I normally... When I d- chat to them you find out, oh, they have two loving parents, and they had a great childhood (laughs) . Um, and so for me, I think why I have certain parts of my personality and like to do comedy and stuff, because I have this... I have a lightness which definitely comes from my mom and my mom's side of the family that are all like that. And then on my dad's side, is just, like, dodginess everywhere (laughs) and, like, yeah, like, uh, I don't... you know, alcoholism and, like, addictions and, um, and, and just also a mentality of just... I don't know how to explain it best apart from saying it's d- bit dodgy, but in a way... And then sometimes when, uh... I mean, I don't suffer from, like, actual depression or whatever, but then sometimes if you're feeling like you're, "Oh," you know, uh, uh, sometimes I- it's feels like a mafia sensation when you're like, "Oh, I wanna get revenge on those people," or something, you know, uh, where I'm, like, shocked of where these feelings come from, and they're normally from the dark side (laughs) . Um, but if I didn't have that, I don't think I'd be as interesting as a, as a person or as a performer-

   22. SBSteven Bartlett16:47

       Mm-hmm.

   23. RWRebel Wilson16:48

       ... um, and I definitely, like, have sometimes have an edginess to the jokes and stuff, which I guess I wouldn't have had if I, if I didn't have, you know, one side of the family be, be a bit dodgy, um, and the other side be light. So I knew, I knew the difference, and I knew I kinda had both within

9. 17:08 – 20:36

   Where Does Your Darkness Come From?

   1. RWRebel Wilson17:08

      me.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett17:08

      You can embody both-

   3. RWRebel Wilson17:09

      Yeah.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett17:09

      ... and that's quite interesting-

   5. RWRebel Wilson17:10

      Yeah.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett17:11

      ... when someone can present as both at the same time.

   7. RWRebel Wilson17:12

      Yeah.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett17:12

      A little bit sadistic as well, but-

   9. RWRebel Wilson17:14

      Oh (laughs) .

   10. SBSteven Bartlett17:15

       (laughs) I- in the, in the, in the cover of your book it says, um, that you were always questioning, "Am I good enough?"

   11. RWRebel Wilson17:20

       Mm-hmm.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett17:21

       I can relate for many reasons of my own to do with, like, coming here when I was-

   13. RWRebel Wilson17:24

       But do you think, Steven, that's why you're successful?

   14. SBSteven Bartlett17:27

       I would s-

   15. RWRebel Wilson17:27

       Because you're asking yourself that question?

   16. SBSteven Bartlett17:31

       I think it's intrinsically linked to why I was apparently so driven.

   17. RWRebel Wilson17:35

       Mm-hmm, yeah.

   18. SBSteven Bartlett17:36

       Which I, I've come to, I'm, I've come to ask myself in recent years, "Am I actually driven or am I being dragged by something?" They both look the same.

   19. RWRebel Wilson17:42

       Yeah.

   20. SBSteven Bartlett17:43

       But when you're dragged, it's more... it's... there's... it's l- there's less control. (laughs)

   21. RWRebel Wilson17:47

       Yeah.

   22. SBSteven Bartlett17:47

       Less ability to stop and slow down. And y- uh, you're a w- workaholic. I read that in the pages of this book.

   23. RWRebel Wilson17:51

       Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.

   24. SBSteven Bartlett17:52

       So I think maybe you're-

   25. RWRebel Wilson17:53

       (laughs) .

   26. SBSteven Bartlett17:53

       ... also in the dragged category to some degree. And my dragging came from being not enough in the context I was g- you know, only Black kid, poorest family in the area, so you're... there's a sh- deep s- sense of shame and insecurity that you're trying to fill, prove to others and yourself that you're, you're not.

   27. RWRebel Wilson18:09

       Mm-hmm.

   28. SBSteven Bartlett18:09

       My question was about when that started in you. What made you f- Can you look back and find out what made you feel like you weren't enough?

   29. RWRebel Wilson18:16

       I think I definitely get self-esteem and self-worth from achievements. Um, and so when I was in school, it would be getting 100% in every exam, and that would be good, and if I didn't, I'd feel bad about myself, and then, I don't know, just generally being successful in things gives me ... like, makes me feel good about myself. But then I was thinking about one of the reasons why I had, uh, uh, issues with food, and ... because I had low self-worth and then, and then I felt like I was not good enough, I was like trash, and that's why I would trash my body 'cause I just felt like, "Well, I don't deserve anything different." And then that's a really complicated question to work out, well, why don't I feel good enough? Um, and, and I've thought about it a lot, and, and some things I know, but then some things I think, uh, I don't know why. Some things are as simple as, like, for example, being born a girl in the area where I was from and boys were more praised. Like, even at the dog shows, uh, uh, we did something called junior handling, and then if a boy ever entered, he'd normally win 'cause it was like, "Oh, a boy is doing it," uh, whereas girls just weren't seen as being as good. Um, the boys school, I went to an all girls high school, uh, but the boys school next door was, was seen as more prestigious and better, um, and, um, and they had the multimillion dollar theater at their school and, you know, it was just, um ... A- and so I think some of it is just as simple as, like, being born a girl in, in the area, and I was like, "God, that's so dumb though. Why didn't I, um" (laughs)

   30. SBSteven Bartlett19:57

       (laughs)
10. 20:36 – 23:56

    Feeling Like Not Being Good Enough

    1. RWRebel Wilson20:36

       and ...

    2. SBSteven Bartlett20:36

       And that's when you would get the praise from the people you cared about?

    3. RWRebel Wilson20:39

       Yeah, and so I just kinda went with that. Um, uh, but it's just ... but then it's like, uh, like, there was nothing wrong with me. I go, "Why did I not feel good enough?" But I guess I've always felt that. Um, uh, and it's kinda sad when you think about it, 'cause you're like, "Why would somebody ... It's not like I did anything bad or, you know, should've felt ashamed about something. I just always felt like that."

    4. SBSteven Bartlett21:08

       I guess it proves that kids, they don't ... they're not born with perfect self-esteem. They do need that to be fostered and pulled into and nourished, or else there can be an absolute ... So what I'm saying-

    5. RWRebel Wilson21:20

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett21:20

       ... is it doesn't have to be something that happened that proved you weren't good enough, but there could just be maybe something that didn't happen that proved you were.

    7. RWRebel Wilson21:26

       Mm-hmm. And I think there's all these little micro things that can happen.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett21:30

       Mm-hmm.

    9. RWRebel Wilson21:31

       Um, you know, you're not chosen for something or you're not ... Uh, you're always at the back, at the side, or, you know, you're not ever the star, or just all these little things, or no one ever thought you'd make it or be anything.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett21:45

        Mm-hmm.

    11. RWRebel Wilson21:46

        Um, and just, like, little things, the little comments people would say or something, and then, um, yeah, and then that all just adds up.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett21:53

        And you ... You're 13, 14, you're in school, you're shy.

    13. RWRebel Wilson21:56

        Mm-hmm.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett21:57

        This point, I'm guessing you, you have that struggle with feeling like you're good enough. I think that's maybe a s- a symptom of the shyness?

    15. RWRebel Wilson22:02

        Yeah. Yeah.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett22:03

        Would be. So yeah.

    17. RWRebel Wilson22:04

        And also, like, I was just very average looking. I had, like, a snaggle tooth.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett22:08

        What's a snaggle tooth?

    19. RWRebel Wilson22:09

        Uh, (laughs) it's like a, basically a deformity.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett22:12

        Okay. (laughs)

    21. RWRebel Wilson22:12

        Like a deformed tooth, like, on one side, which I've had fixed now.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett22:16

        Yeah.

    23. RWRebel Wilson22:16

        But it's kind of like a fang-

    24. SBSteven Bartlett22:17

        (laughs)

    25. RWRebel Wilson22:17

        ... I guess.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett22:18

        Okay, yeah.

    27. RWRebel Wilson22:18

        But only on one side, so it wasn't like some cool vampire thing.

    28. SBSteven Bartlett22:21

        Okay. (laughs)

    29. RWRebel Wilson22:22

        Um, and then I had that and I was so painfully shy where I'd go red in the face if a teacher asked, uh, me to answer a question in class even though I knew the answer. I was just ... it was so embarrassing and I didn't have any friends, um, and I guess because I thought, "Well, why would people wanna be friends with me? I'm not good looking or popular or cool in any way," and, and so I just ... Yeah, it was, it was really ... That was, like, one of the darkest times, like when I ... like 13, 14, and, and, like, you know, people are kind of becoming themselves at that point. And then I read this article in the library that said that what your personality is at 15 will be your personality for life, uh, because I used to eat my lunches in the library just by myself so I was reading stuff all the time. And then I read this and I went, "Oh, like, I'm so close to 15. If I don't change, this is gonna be me forever, and can I imagine my li- like not expressing anything to anybody, just, like, being just shy and introverted and isolated?" And I just knew I didn't want that or that wouldn't have been the happy life for me. And not that there's anything wrong with being shy, like, 'cause shy c- sometimes can be like a superpower. You observe people and you, um, you know, you learn a lot by, by observing. But then I just was like, "No, I wanna have friends and I wanna have fun and be popular," and, and so I was like, "Oh, well, I better get a move on," and luckily I found those motivational tapes.

11. 23:56 – 26:21

    The Steps I Took To Become A New Person

    1. RWRebel Wilson23:56

    2. SBSteven Bartlett23:56

       And you don't- (laughs)

    3. RWRebel Wilson23:58

       And then (laughs) yeah, and then they helped me, um, because I thought, "I wanna be somebody that expresses myself," but, like, literally you'd look at me, uh, and I sometimes see it in my niece now, I think she has a similar thing, like, and it's almost like you wouldn't be able to register anything that's going on. You wouldn't know if I'd had a good day or a bad day. I'd just ... it'd just be like no, no expression or anything. Um, and then I ...... I was like, "Okay, I'm gonna force myself to, like, come out of my little cocoon or my shell," or, um, whatever the metaphor is, and just break out. And with the help of those tapes and, like, and having a strategy on how to do it-

    4. SBSteven Bartlett24:37

       What was the strategy?

    5. RWRebel Wilson24:38

       Uh, well, there were all sorts of things. But I remember from that How to Win Friends and Influence People, there was something about talking to five new people every day. And so that was one of the first things I did. And, like, talking to girls on the bus or just, you know, walking up through the school gates and talk- just talking to the person next to me and saying, "Hi." And what you realize is that there's other people as lonely and as isolated as what you are. And that might have been the highlight of their day to speak to somebody new. And, you know, instead of just sitting in the library all day waiting for friends to find me, which they never would, why don't I actively go out and join like sp- other sport teams or other clubs at the school and, like, actively try to make friends? Like, it's not just gonna happen if you're just doing nothing. Um, so there were these little tips and strategies, um, but one of which was to get attention, which was to be, essentially to be naughty, to get attention. It's kinda like that, uh, you know Eminem, the rapper. If he hadn't have put out all these songs that were, like, really controversial and had, you know, outrageous things in them, would he have been a successful rapper? Probably not. And so it was kind of like I then had to do some dodgy things at school to get known, to get, like, a reputation-

    6. SBSteven Bartlett26:03

       Mm-hmm.

    7. RWRebel Wilson26:03

       ... which was against my natural personality 'cause I was such a good little girl. Um, but I had to do things, outrageous things, to get attention, and then that led to popularity. And then once you have the popularity, you don't need to do that stuff, but

12. 26:21 – 28:29

    How I Became More Extroverted

    1. RWRebel Wilson26:21

       yeah.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett26:21

       Is, is there some kind of a link there between you, the career you would then pursue as an actress, as a performer, um, a comedian, all of those things, and this sort of early desire to have attention and validation from, you know, your peers?

    3. RWRebel Wilson26:37

       Well, I think it started from just (laughs) like a more normal thing about wanting to have friends-

    4. SBSteven Bartlett26:44

       Mm-hmm.

    5. RWRebel Wilson26:44

       ... and wanting to be invited to some parties, and, um, so it, it started, it started from that. And, and, like, and then you wanted to be respected, but then to be respected people first have to know who you are. And so sometimes you have to do that atten- attention-seeking behavior to get that. Um, but, but the, uh, how I got into, like, acting was really... Well, my mum dragged me into it because, um, I mean, the studies on the creative arts can really help your self-esteem and self-confidence. It's, like, insane. Like, it's really good for young people who are struggling. And my mum could see me, like, struggling and having no friends, and so mum takes me to these drama classes at this community center and literally has to drag me out of the car. I'm holding onto the car door with my fingernails-

    6. SBSteven Bartlett27:36

       (laughs)

    7. RWRebel Wilson27:36

       ... like, going, "No, no, no, I don't wanna go." It was so traumatic. But she was doing it not because she wanted me to become an actor. Like, we don't have any professional entertainers in the family. Like, you know, uh, nobody I know was in the business or whatever. At that point, it was more to help my self-confidence and self-esteem through the creative arts, and weirdly it really did because when you're shy like I was, to play different characters, it's like an escape because it's not really me. It's a different character, and, and then you can perform as that person, and then eventually some of that confidence starts coming to you, the real you, um, uh, from, from doing that. But obviously, at the time, nobody thought I would become a professional actress, or they would've laughed about-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett28:27

       (laughs)

    9. RWRebel Wilson28:27

       ... about that scenario.

13. 28:29 – 31:38

    I Had To Carry A Weapon With Me To Protect Myself

    1. RWRebel Wilson28:29

    2. SBSteven Bartlett28:29

       It's, it's interesting 'cause you can see these different drives forming within you. You've got this drive for, um, I dunno, you might say for validation externally, but then-

    3. RWRebel Wilson28:39

       Mm.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett28:39

       ... because you come from a family that didn't have money, there's also where you were rewarded for academic success or being successful at something, there's also this drive to be successful which shows up in early in your story when you start selling things and buying things, and then you do exceptionally well in school. Um, you go off to board, boarding school at sort of 16 years old.

    5. RWRebel Wilson28:58

       Mm-hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett28:58

       I think in part it sounds like to escape from the childhood, the household dynamics of your father and your mother.

    7. RWRebel Wilson29:04

       Yeah.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett29:04

       Um, you do exceptionally well there as well, exceptionally well, and then you end up in Africa, South Africa-

    9. RWRebel Wilson29:12

       Yeah. I know.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett29:14

        ... which is-

    11. RWRebel Wilson29:14

        It was, like, a-

    12. SBSteven Bartlett29:14

        ... random.

    13. RWRebel Wilson29:15

        Uh, so, you know, a lot of people do the gap year thing-

    14. SBSteven Bartlett29:18

        Yeah, yeah.

    15. RWRebel Wilson29:19

        ... and I mean, it's random, but basically I was a witness in a major crime squad investigation when I was in my final year of school. I'd witnessed something and had to testify, and then, uh, through that, some people were very impressed with my ability to go and do that i- in a case, and so I was like... And, and they told me about this program that was, uh, it's a Rotary program, and it was called a Youth Ambassador, um, Program. And basically, they wanted young people who were very good at public speaking, and by this point, I'd done, I'd forced myself to do debating and public speaking and I- to get over my shyness, and so I was quite a good speaker. And, and I got recommended into this program and got selected, and you don't get to choose what country you go to. They, they just select for you. So, and they sent one boy and one girl from our district over, uh, to different countries, and I got given South Africa. And I was like, "Cool, cool," 'cause I thought it was gonna be like The Lion King-

    16. SBSteven Bartlett30:23

        (laughs)

    17. RWRebel Wilson30:23

        ... at first, which is one of my favorite movies. And then I go, rock up to South Africa a few years post-apartheid and...It was so different to Australia. Like, Australia's very safe.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett30:35

        (laughs)

    19. RWRebel Wilson30:36

        Johannesburg had the highest, uh, rape and murder rate in the world at that time. And there were guns everywhere, and barbed wire fences, and, you know, attack dogs. And it was like... It was so eye-opening. But then to also, uh, be constantly aware of the violence, and, like, I had to carry a little, like, a wooden baton. Like what you see, like, an old, you know, policeman in a cartoon would, would carry. Because I literally, if somebody attacked me, I'd have to hit them on the head with it. And it was like, I was like, "This is crazy." Like, there was, there was so much going on that year. Um, and, but that's how I got the malaria, uh, which forced me to have this vision that I was to become an actress. And I think if I'd never ever gone to Africa, I never would've had that life-changing vision, and I probably just would've gone back into law school, and, and been, uh, been a lawyer in, in Australia.

14. 31:38 – 36:45

    The Hallucination That Changed My Life

    1. RWRebel Wilson31:38

    2. SBSteven Bartlett31:38

       Me and you both share that in common. We both were in Africa and got bitten by a mosquito.

    3. RWRebel Wilson31:42

       Did you have a vision?

    4. SBSteven Bartlett31:43

       I had a vision.

    5. RWRebel Wilson31:44

       What was your vision?

    6. SBSteven Bartlett31:45

       So I, my dad was holding... So I was, we were in our house, and they didn't know that I had malaria.

    7. RWRebel Wilson31:49

       Uh-huh.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett31:49

       This is what my dad and my mum tell me. I was very young.

    9. RWRebel Wilson31:51

       Yeah.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett31:51

        They were holding me here. And I was, I'd woken up in the night because I said there was a man by my bed.

    11. RWRebel Wilson31:55

        Hmm.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett31:55

        So they picked me up thinking like, "Oh my God, there's this man in his bedroom." And th- when my dad was holding me like this so I can see over his shoulder, the man would be behind him.

    13. RWRebel Wilson32:05

        Mm-hmm.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett32:05

        And I was freaking out that there's a man behind him-

    15. RWRebel Wilson32:07

        Yeah.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett32:07

        ... um, which I was, later would call the Shadow Man, and wrote a little novel about when I was about 14.

    17. RWRebel Wilson32:12

        Yeah.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett32:12

        And this, this Shadow Man, um, because I was losing my mind, they took me to hospital. And at hospital, they found out that I had malaria. But in hindsight, they tell the story that that's, that man saved my life.

    19. RWRebel Wilson32:23

        Oh.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett32:23

        You know what I mean? So I grew up very, I grew up with this idea that I had a guardian angel because-

    21. RWRebel Wilson32:28

        Ah, the Shadow Man who's...

    22. SBSteven Bartlett32:29

        But it was just malaria and hallucinations.

    23. RWRebel Wilson32:31

        Yeah, well, like, I guess...

    24. SBSteven Bartlett32:32

        Tell me about your hallucination.

    25. RWRebel Wilson32:33

        I had a na- nasty strain of malaria, and, um, it was, put in hospital. (laughs) And, uh, you know, malaria is so diff- I don't know whether you remember 'cause of how old you were.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett32:43

        No.

    27. RWRebel Wilson32:43

        But it's, uh, it felt like, it felt like I was not in my body. And, and then they'd take me into hospital and give me these drugs, and then I, and then I (laughs) just started hallucinating. And I hallucinated that I was an actress, that I was so good that I win an Academy Award. And I must've... I mean, I'd seen the Oscars on TV. I'd obviously never been. And, um, and then I just walked down the is- and it was so real. Like, I could s- see all the people with the dresses, and I get up on stage, and then I give an acceptance rap rather than an acceptance speech-

    28. SBSteven Bartlett33:12

        (laughs)

    29. RWRebel Wilson33:12

        ... because I thought, "Oh, yeah, that's hardcore." And at one point, I had wanted, I had wanted to be a rapper because of their coolness and swagger. Um, uh, it didn't work out for me-

    30. SBSteven Bartlett33:22

        Oh, still to this day.
15. 36:45 – 38:39

    Becoming A Lawyer To Then Pursue Acting Career

    1. RWRebel Wilson36:45

    2. SBSteven Bartlett36:45

       Sometimes the oldest sibling, you're the oldest of four, right?

    3. RWRebel Wilson36:47

       Yes.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett36:47

       There's a bit of a reflection of, a more sort of a reflection I think of what the parents wanted for themselves. I s- I tend to think that's a bit of a-

    5. RWRebel Wilson36:54

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett36:55

       So I'm wondering if your, like, desire for success and validation, or if it was something that you felt from your father, like, you know, him... he couldn't be that himself so maybe he reflected more praise on you when you were objectively successful in the things that you did. Um, wh- why would you want to be a lawyer, is...

    7. RWRebel Wilson37:12

       Yeah. I just... because if you were smart, you'd go into-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett37:15

       That was a-

    9. RWRebel Wilson37:15

       ... law or medicine.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett37:16

        Yeah.

    11. RWRebel Wilson37:17

        Um, and, and so, you know, and they would have loved to have gone around and said, you know, "Oh, my daughter's a lawyer at this firm," and that would have been a great, you know, great career that they would've thought. They, my parents had to work really hard to send me to the school that I did. Like, at one point, apart from selling all the dog products, my dad was also working at the gas station overnight and, you know, just to afford my school uniforms and stuff like that.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett37:42

        Mm-hmm.

    13. RWRebel Wilson37:42

        So, so for them a successful outcome would've been, "Okay, she got into the top law school and now she's gonna be a lawyer, and therefore all that money spent on education was worth it."

    14. SBSteven Bartlett37:53

        And you go back, you do end up qualifying as a lawyer.

    15. RWRebel Wilson37:56

        Yeah.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett37:56

        Um, you become a lawyer. Um-

    17. RWRebel Wilson37:58

        It did take me ten years though.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett37:59

        Ten years.

    19. RWRebel Wilson37:59

        It's normally a five-year double degree, and I did arts as well. Um-

    20. SBSteven Bartlett38:03

        Why did it take so long? 'Cause you're acting.

    21. RWRebel Wilson38:05

        So basically, yeah (laughs) . So I would, I'd be in theater shows at first and then it would be TV shows. And my law school had an 80% attendance rule, so basically if I started i- in a semester and then for some reason my filming schedule or whatever, I'd have to repeat the subject.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett38:22

        Oh, okay.

    23. RWRebel Wilson38:22

        Because if I didn't attend in person 80%, uh, the time. So it was exhausting. Um, often I was, would fly, have to fly into state, I'd be filming in, in another state, have to get up at 4:00 AM in the morning and I'd c- fly to Sydney to law school and then fly all the way back that night.

16. 38:39 – 39:54

    How Many Years Until You Made It In Hollywood?

    1. RWRebel Wilson38:39

    2. SBSteven Bartlett38:39

       From the, from the first time you did whatever you class as like an acting gig-

    3. RWRebel Wilson38:43

       Mm-hmm.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett38:44

       ... or tried to be an actress, to the moment when you feel like you had made it, how many years is that?

    5. RWRebel Wilson38:51

       So I started quite late, I guess. I started like 18 turning 19, which is quite late, I think. A lot of people start-

    6. SBSteven Bartlett38:59

       Kids.

    7. RWRebel Wilson38:59

       ... yeah, 12, 13, I guess. Um, and then that was like proper acting classes, like proper, like with people wanting to do it as a career. And then I had... I wrote my first play at 21. I just wrote it in two nights, and then it won this playwriting competition and got put on. Um, and I was like, "Holy crap." Um, and then a television station gave me $90,000 to put it on professionally, which was, like, kinda insane. Great luck for the first thing I'd ever written. Um, and I realized from that point nobody saw me as an actor. I wasn't like Nicole Kidman or s- that, you know, in that vein. So I realized pretty quick I had to write myself, my own material if I was gonna make it. But I didn't start earning a professional, like a full-time wage, um, until I was a regular on a TV show at 23.

17. 39:54 – 42:44

    My Weight Defined The Roles I Got

    1. RWRebel Wilson39:54

    2. SBSteven Bartlett39:54

       At what point in this journey towards being an actress do you realize that your weight is influencing how people see you and the way that they're casting you?

    3. RWRebel Wilson40:07

       So when I was like, uh, about 21 into like 22, uh, I had something called PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and one of the key signifiers of that was, like, rapid weight gain. So all of a sudden... I mean, when I first started acting, I was just a regular size, a bit athletic looking but, you know, pretty regular. Um, and, and then all of a sudden I gained 30 kilos and was like... and I had some other symptoms as well, I had like some dark hair on my arms and there's, there's a couple of key signifiers to it, and then I went to the doctor and they said, "Oh yeah, you've got PCOS." And in that first play that I'd written when I was 21, I'd cast a girl who was bigger th- you know, quite a large girl, and then I noticed on stage, like, she'd get way more laughs than me. And I kind of wrote all the roles quite evenly and I was like, "Why is that girl getting, getting more laughs?" And I honestly thought... I mean, well, one, she's hilarious, but it's 'cause she's bigger and people like laughing at bigger people. And then there... I did this subject at university called Comedy and Power, and basically, you know, there is a science to... if you normally... if you wanna sleep with somebody, you're not normally wanting to laugh at them. So, uh, you know, if you wanna sleep with someone, you're into them, attracted to them, but normally the people that you wanna laugh at are people that have some kind of immediate physical irregularity, like, you know, bigger women do do well in comedy. Um, you might be really tall, really short, you might have a really big nose, something, something about you that's quite distinctive, um, that people can instantly go, "Aha," you know. And they... I- more in comedy the science of it is more people wanna be your friend rather than... they don't wanna be your lover, they, they wanna be your friend, and they think, you know, you'd be good to hang out with and have a laugh with. And so it was really interesting, when I gained all this weight, I was like, "Ah, I think I'm gonna lean into comedy," because, um, even though I'd tried to be a serious actress at first, I was like, "Hang on, this which could be seen as a huge negative, a lot of people would be going, 'Oh, no,'" you know, I'd put on all this weight. Instead I went the opposite way, and was like, "You know what? I could use this to my advantage. I like comedy."... I f- I, I think I should go into comedy and use being bigger as just wa-, you know, a good tool in my comedy toolbox.

18. 42:44 – 45:26

    I Used My Weight To My Advantage

    1. RWRebel Wilson42:44

    2. SBSteven Bartlett42:44

       And then that was kind of reinforced, I guess, because then you, people laugh harder and then they-

    3. RWRebel Wilson42:47

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett42:47

       ... pay you more and then they say-

    5. RWRebel Wilson42:48

       And it is true. It is, is, is true. People, like, laughed, laughed more and I leant into comedy. And then I got a scholarship from Nicole Kidman, uh, to go to New York. And I went to s-, uh, Second City Comedy School in New York at the time. Um, and yeah. And then I just realized I had a quite a good knack for it, and that was taking off more than the dramatic acting.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett43:12

       How did you feel about yourself at that time?

    7. RWRebel Wilson43:15

       Well, I guess, uh, I was quite shocked in my diaries when I looked back at them for, for research for the book. Even when I was 16 and I wasn't big at all, I was very athletic, played lots of different sports, and, and my first goal was, like, to lose two kilos. I guess 'cause my mum had made a comment at some point, not, not for any bad reasons. She just, you know, thought she had weight issues herself and just thought, you know, if I lost those two kilos, I might feel better in myself or something like that. And so I just, when I gained all that weight, there, there's kind of a dichotomy 'cause at one point I'm like, "This could help me professionally in comedy," and, you know, big girls do, do better in comedy. I can see a pigeonhole for myself i- in that area, and you can be successful. And I'd just gotten on a television show when I was 23 playing, kind of, the, I guess, the whale character is what they sometimes referred to me as, and, um-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett44:19

       They referred to you as the whale character?

    9. RWRebel Wilson44:20

       Yeah. Well, like, I was the obese girlfriend of one of the guys who he was embarrassed to go out with me. So the whole joke was, like, he was trying to hide me because he didn't want a, people to know I was in a relationship 'cause I was obese. And that was the whole... It was a very popular show in Australia. It's called Fat Pizza. And, and so on the one hand, there's that. But then on the other hand, I felt like, uh, oh, I knew I was eating very badly. I mean, my diet at that point was just carbs pretty much. I remember coming to New York and going to comedy school and, you know, and just eating a pint of ice cream for dinner or a whole big bag of chips or something. And, and then, and I n- so on the one hand, I could be confident and know that this could be good for me career-wise. But on the other hand, I knew, "I'm not treating myself right. This is not good." You know, "I'm not being healthy." Um, and so I had both going on in my mind at the same time.

19. 45:26 – 47:34

    Did Your Roles Impact Your Self Esteem?

    1. RWRebel Wilson45:26

    2. SBSteven Bartlett45:26

       How do you, um, play a role in a movie, that Fat Pizza movie, where you're basically a, someone, something's, somebody that somebody else is embarrassed about?

    3. RWRebel Wilson45:39

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett45:40

       And how does that not impact your self-esteem at some level? 'Cause I'm thinking if I was playing in a movie someone, s- an individual that someone was trying to hide.

    5. RWRebel Wilson45:48

       The thing is, like, 'cause when it's acting, it's not quite you. Only, uh, on a rare occasion would people confuse... Like, 'cause obviously the guys on the show were pretty great and respectful off, off camera and everything. Um, it was, that was just the character I was playing.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett46:05

       Mm-hmm.

    7. RWRebel Wilson46:05

       And I was lucky to be on a comedy show and, uh, to be earning money that way. But then I remember going to a post office and just, like, mailing a letter. And the guy was obviously a fan of the show and started saying, "Oh, Tula," y- that was my character name. "Oh, you're so fat," you know. And, like, he in real life was saying stuff like the guys on the show, but this is now real life.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett46:29

       Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    9. RWRebel Wilson46:30

       And it was very hurtful in, in real life. Whereas for acting, it's, you know, you kind of can separate it a little bit.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett46:36

        What did you say to him that day, that post, post office person?

    11. RWRebel Wilson46:38

        I didn't say anything. I just kind of walked out and thought, "Oh, that guy's an idiot. He doesn't understand the distinction between a comedy show and, you know, a real person." Uh, and so that was just a bit hurtful. (laughs) Um, but it, but I guess it must, but then on the other hand, it's, it's hard to feel sorry for myself because then, obviously not in Australia, but then when I came to America and played, like, Fat Amy, which was, uh, probably my f- most famous character. I mean, now I'm making millions of dollars from playing the, the fat funny girl and really leaning into that. And so-

    12. SBSteven Bartlett47:19

        And what do you care about more, the millions of dollars or the...

    13. RWRebel Wilson47:22

        Yeah.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett47:22

        You know what I mean? And that's the-

    15. RWRebel Wilson47:23

        Well, now I care about my health and well-being.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett47:26

        Yeah.

    17. RWRebel Wilson47:26

        But, but back then I guess I thought, "Oh, well, I'm becoming successful and this is helping me become successful."

20. 47:34 – 50:07

    Wanting To Become Successful Despite Hurting Myself

    1. RWRebel Wilson47:34

    2. SBSteven Bartlett47:34

       I think this is really at the heart of what your book takes on is the idea that, you know, we can become, quote unquote, "successful"-

    3. RWRebel Wilson47:44

       Mm-hmm.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett47:46

       ... in the eyes of the world. But that doesn't necessarily mean we're successful holistically-

    5. RWRebel Wilson47:51

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett47:51

       ... in all the things that we need to, to be successful. And I, I, I relate to that so much because f- because of the things we've described about being driven and dragged and all that stuff. I think I became successful in one of maybe the 10 things that I needed to be, to be, like, rounded as a person.

    7. RWRebel Wilson48:06

       Yeah.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett48:06

       And anomalies like you that achieve such great success, often there's a trade-off.

    9. RWRebel Wilson48:12

       Yeah. So I felt like I needed, like, Olympic athlete dedication to make it in the entertainment business. I mean, the odds of making it are so small. One, to make it in my home country and then to come to Hollywood an- and to make it, um, the odds are, you know, millions to one, really-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett48:28

        Mm-hmm.

    11. RWRebel Wilson48:28

        ... of having the career that I've had. Um, so you know, like, an Olympic gymnast, if you meet people and they're, like, incredible at gymnastics, but then you talk to them, um...... about their personal life or their, their skills. And, uh, and then basically you can tell they're, like, stunted-

    12. SBSteven Bartlett48:52

        Yeah.

    13. RWRebel Wilson48:52

        ... I guess, is the, is the right word. Um, so they've had this drive and this focus and they've achieved, and they've... If they're an athlete, you know, they get to the Olympics or, or to me, like, I've been in an Oscar-nominated movie. Um, I haven't won obviously. The vision hasn't come true. Um, but, but was I stunted? I was like, if you really knew me, you'd know that, yeah, I hadn't been on a, out on a date, um, u- until my early 30s. I hadn't had that inti- intimate experiences and, uh, and relationships and... So, all that area of my life, like, wasn't great. But I was, like, the most successful person to ever come out of my high school or, you know... So, like, there were great things. I could go courtside at the LA Lakers games or, you know... (laughs) Like, there were awesome stuff, but then there was like... Yeah, on a personal side, I wasn't the, the best person. And then I, and then I knew that. I knew, "Oh, God. Okay, so I've excelled in one area, but now there's others that I'm, like, quite lacking in." And the other area was, apart from love life and kind of social life, was also, um, health.

21. 50:07 – 51:49

    I Lost Money Playing In Bridesmaids!

    1. RWRebel Wilson50:07

    2. SBSteven Bartlett50:07

       You h- you move to America. Um, you get, um... You work very hard for the next couple of years. You get this, you know, this opportunity in Bridesmaids, which then takes some time for it to come out.

    3. RWRebel Wilson50:19

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett50:19

       You, uh, I h- I read in your book that you got paid $3,500 for your role in Bridesmaids-

    5. RWRebel Wilson50:24

       Yeah. So-

    6. SBSteven Bartlett50:25

       ... which is quite shocking.

    7. RWRebel Wilson50:25

       Um, yeah, that was my first job in America. And I mean, I was very lucky to, to get a... I mean, what an awesome cracker of a movie. To get that, but to be paid that little, and basically that $3,500 I then had to pay to the union, to join the union. So basically, I made no money. I lost money 'cause I had to pay to go to the premier, like, to buy-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett50:45

       (laughs)

    9. RWRebel Wilson50:45

       ... my dress and everything. So, I lost money doing Bridesmaids, but... And then you have to wait. It normally takes a whole year when you film a movie for the movie to be released. So, that was a really skint year where I was living on $60 a week in LA once I'd paid my rent and my car hire. And that's not a lot of money. So like, I wasn't partying or living, living this life. It was basically, uh, just having that focus, trying to write for myself, like, going to auditions and, um, and I had to wait a whole year till Bridesmaids came out. And then suddenly it comes out as this big hit and I booked six movies off the back of it, one of which was Pitch Perfect, uh, which was kind of my real golden ticket, um, that movie. And-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett51:30

        Became the highest grossing musical comedy franchise of all time.

    11. RWRebel Wilson51:33

        Yes.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett51:34

        And there was-

    13. RWRebel Wilson51:34

        Yeah. Very, very, very successful and very, very awesome fun movies to be a part of. So they're li- they're like such a gift, those movies.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett51:42

        Your life changes at that point.

    15. RWRebel Wilson51:44

        Mm-hmm.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett51:44

        Because you, you're sort of globally, internationally famous now.

22. 51:49 – 52:13

    Having No Money To Doing 6 Hollywood Films

    1. SBSteven Bartlett51:49

       And surely that means job done.

    2. RWRebel Wilson51:52

       Yes.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett51:52

       We can, we can chill, we can go look at other things. And I say this because there's so many people, me being probably one of them, that maybe told ourselves in the past that once we hit the Pitch Perfect, the global smash hit success, then we'll chill.

    4. RWRebel Wilson52:04

       Then you'll be happy.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett52:05

       (laughs)

    6. RWRebel Wilson52:05

       And then it'll be fine and then... Uh, but then of course then you come up with some different goals.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett52:10

       Yeah. (laughs)

    8. RWRebel Wilson52:11

       So I'm like... It's even harder.

23. 52:13 – 53:10

    Ads

    1. RWRebel Wilson52:13

    2. SBSteven Bartlett52:13

       (paper rustles) So you guys may have heard our most recent news, the launch of Flight Studio, which is our brand new podcast and media technology company. As we scale this new company, we also need to scale our team. And my first port of call for hiring across Flight Studio has been LinkedIn Jobs, who are a sponsor of this podcast. We're hiring for around 30 to 60 roles right now and LinkedIn has been me and my team's go-to. Their platform makes the hiring process intuitive, smooth, and super efficient. LinkedIn has helped me and my team source professionals we can't get anywhere else. Even those who aren't actually searching for jobs right now, but might be open to the perfect role with us. In a given month, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job websites, they visit LinkedIn. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. So today, I'm giving the Diary of a CEO community a free LinkedIn job post. Head to linkedin.com/doac now, and let me know how you get on. Terms and conditions apply.

24. 53:10 – 57:12

    I Wasn’t Healthy Enough To Have A Child

    1. SBSteven Bartlett53:10

       (paper rustles) A real p- pivotal moment and turning point in your life is clearly when you went to that doctor that day, after deciding that you wanted to have a child.

    2. RWRebel Wilson53:19

       Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett53:21

       W- w- w- why did you decide you wanted to have a child? Was there an influence, something you'd seen or something?

    4. RWRebel Wilson53:26

       I guess I never thought, 'cause I was so career-driven, I thought, "Oh..." You know, I'd never thought I would wanna have a family. Um, and also being in my business, it was so, it's so egocentric, the business. Um, and so I just didn't think that was in the cards for me, and I also thought, "Oh well, I'm probably never gonna find a partner or whatever." And then I was just like this biological clock inside me, when in my late 30s just started, like, ticking really loudly and I kinda say it's like, in Peter Pan that crocodile that has the clock inside it. It was just like, like you could hear it going, "Tick, tick, tick, tick." I was like, "Do it now." Like, "It'll be... Otherwise, it'll be too late." And I would see babies on the street with their mums and be like, "Aww." And I'd just like ki- keep staring at all the babies. (laughs)

    5. SBSteven Bartlett54:12

       (laughs)

    6. RWRebel Wilson54:12

       And, and just like, like I just really felt this urge in, inside me to be a mother and even though I didn't have a partner at that point and, uh, I just was like, "Uh, I think I should, uh, try." And, and but I was getting... I was like 39 years old, and I didn't even know that I had eggs or what could be done. And, um, and then I went to the fertility doctor and, and by this point, like, I'm living this really large li- You know, I am medically obese but I'm living this kind of amazing life. I'd traveled the world, I learned how to have fun and, uh, not be so much of a workaholic. And I was li- You know, like that Lizzo song, like, "It's bad bitch o'clock." Like that was like my life, like, I'm walking around-... and is loving it. I been successful now." A- and then the doctor looks me up and down and goes, "Uh, yeah, but you're not healthy." And he said, "You have a much better chance of having a baby if you were healthy." And the way he said it with, like, kinda, uh, little, quite a lot of disdain in his voice, I was like, "Huh," 'cause that's, that was a stranger. Most people, you know, in Hollywood, they're not gonna come up to you and go, "Oh, you're engaging in bad, you know, eating habits, obviously." Like, um, they're just like, "Oh, congratulations on your new movie," and, "Yay, it's great, you, um, you play Fat Amy and that's awesome," and-

    7. SBSteven Bartlett55:41

       Did he know who you were?

    8. RWRebel Wilson55:41

       ... "How successful it's been." Uh, I don't think so. He wasn't in my demographic. (laughs)

    9. SBSteven Bartlett55:45

       Okay. (laughs) Yeah, yeah, okay.

    10. RWRebel Wilson55:47

        He looked a bit like the doctor from, uh, Doc from, um, Back to the Future.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett55:52

        Okay, yeah.

    12. RWRebel Wilson55:53

        Older guy with white wiry hair.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett55:55

        Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    14. RWRebel Wilson55:55

        So yeah, I don't think he was in the Pitch Perfect fan base. And he just, he just said it straight to my face, and then I s- go, "Oh, I'm not healthy." 'Cause, and I knew deep down, I just suppressed those feelings, but I knew deep down I wasn't healthy. But I didn't have any serious diseases. I was doing incredible things all around the world, so I just didn't... And then he said that and then it like, it really sunk in. And it was like this criticism that was, I couldn't ignore, and I was like, "Oh God. Okay, yeah, he is right and I'm not healthy." Um, because on the one hand I'm like a beacon of body positivity in that... 'Cause I really do think beauty is at any size, and, um, and- and had- and had grown, you know, so much self-confidence, um, by that point. But then, uh, on the other hand, I knew I was engaging in unhealthy eating behaviors, and that was something I wanted to improve in myself. And then I thought, "Well, the next year, 2020, I'll make the whole year about getting healthy." Like I said, "I'm not gonna work." Weirdly, I couldn't have predicted that a pandemic was gonna happen. Uh, I'd already planned not to work that year, and just take a whole year to do health stuff.

25. 57:12 – 59:24

    The Comment From One Stranger That Changed My Entire Health Trajectory

    1. RWRebel Wilson57:13

    2. SBSteven Bartlett57:13

       You- you get back in the car after that doctor visit, and you describe kind of your, what's going on in your brain.

    3. RWRebel Wilson57:18

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett57:18

       But y- you've s-... As you said, you know at that point, you- you knew you weren't healthy deep down, deep down.

    5. RWRebel Wilson57:24

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett57:25

       Um...

    7. RWRebel Wilson57:25

       Everyone kinda knows, you know?

    8. SBSteven Bartlett57:28

       You know, we all know.

    9. RWRebel Wilson57:28

       Uh, if you, if you are-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett57:29

        Yeah.

    11. RWRebel Wilson57:29

        ... medically obese, you kinda know that, yeah, something's not right.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett57:32

        But it's hard to get from there to m- taking any action. It's really hard to- to change behavior in such a way.

    13. RWRebel Wilson57:38

        Yes, especially because I... Yes, had I tried to go on diets, uh, before, had I gone on diets, had I gone to, like, a little health farm and, you know, lost five, seven pounds in a week and- and then you never sustain it, and then it goes back up. So I'd like... It's not like I'd never tried, I just never thought because always the weight would come back on, and that was just my homeostasis or whatever for my body was like at 102 kilos, and that's kind of just how it was. And I was like, "Oh well, uh, I could never permanently change that." I just thought, "Nah, I can get two degrees from university and become an international movie star, but I just can't..." Like, with the weight, I was like, "I can't, like, just, you know... I don't know, I'm just not right in that area. I would never b- I would never be healthy in that way."

    14. SBSteven Bartlett58:32

        And that one comment from that stranger-

    15. RWRebel Wilson58:35

        Yeah, it was something-

    16. SBSteven Bartlett58:36

        ... hit a little bit?

    17. RWRebel Wilson58:36

        ... in the way he said it. And I was like, "S- sugar, I'm not, uh, like, I'm not healthy." Like, and that must be-

    18. SBSteven Bartlett58:45

        But you wanted to have a kid.

    19. RWRebel Wilson58:45

        ... what a lot of people thought, they just never said it to my face. Um, and then it was kind of the motivation almost not really for myself and my health, but for a future child.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett58:59

        Mm-hmm.

    21. RWRebel Wilson59:00

        That I thought, "Well, now I've gotta fix this, um, and work really hard, um, to do it." Because if I... I try- I'd tried so many ti- I don't know, 20 times or whatever in the past to... But it always only lasted a short term, and then I was like, "Well, okay, but this is different 'cause now the motivation's to have a child." So that's like a different motivating factor.

26. 59:24 – 1:01:25

    “People Didn't Want Me To Lose Weight”

    1. RWRebel Wilson59:24

    2. SBSteven Bartlett59:24

       You wanna have a child. This doctor says, "You'll have a better chance if you're healthy."

    3. RWRebel Wilson59:27

       Mm.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett59:27

       You leave there that day. You must also have it in the back of your mind that people are paying you millions and millions and millions of dollars. I think around that time that you- you'd made like $20 million in movies-

    5. RWRebel Wilson59:36

       Mm-hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett59:37

       ... or whatever. Um, they're paying you because you fit this persona that they want.

    7. RWRebel Wilson59:42

       Yeah.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett59:42

       So-

    9. RWRebel Wilson59:42

       So as soon as I started telling people in my team about this, they're like, "Oh no, no, no, no, why would you wanna lose weight like that? No, I wouldn't. If I was you, I wouldn't do that 'cause then you lose your multimillion dollar pigeon hole that you've so successfully created, and look at all the work you've done to get that. And now, you're just gonna throw it away?" So I was then literally like, "Okay, what do I do with my life? I'm gonna get healthy but I lose my career? Or do I just stay the way I am and maybe never have a child?" And like that was literally kind of how it was positioned to me. And so even though literally everyone around me pretty much said, "Stay as you are," I just felt like, "Nah, I gotta (laughs) I think I know deep down that I'm engaging in unhealthy behaviors, and I'm gonna- I'm gonna work on my health, and try to have a child." Thinking at that point, I know it sounds implicit, but thinking that my career could be over then. But I was like, "Nah, it's too, that's too important."

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:51

        Going on that journey, losing the weight and all those kinds of things is n- never a straight line.

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:00:55

        Yeah. No, it's, it was... The, I mean, the pandemic helped a lot 'cause literally everything stopped.Um, and, and I could just focus, uh, focus on being healthy. It was, uh, that became a big blessing, um, to me, and when I really focused and did the emotional work, because there's things like that I write about in the book that I just never thought about until I started emotionally processing things.

27. 1:01:25 – 1:02:13

    Your Film Contract Wouldn’t Let You Lose Weight

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:01:25

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:01:25

       Did one of your contracts say, I think it was Pitch Perfect, say that you couldn't lose 10 pounds of weight, contractually?

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:01:31

       Yeah. So that's like quite common. You can't drastically change your appearance, so that's pretty much in all acting contracts. Um, it's not just about weight, it's about your hair, you know, what, what you look like, um, and you can't go, you know, too much either side. Um, that's basically because sometimes in films you have to do re-shoots, uh, or sometimes, you know, they might wanna do a sequel or something, and so you kind of have to stay the same. So literally, like, I have to ask somebody if I'd wanna cut my hair right now, uh, to a different color or style or whatever. It's just, it's just a thing in the business, because you could be asked to do a re-shoot on a film a year later.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:11

       Mm-hmm.

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:02:12

       You have to kinda look the same.

28. 1:02:13 – 1:04:37

    Your Journey Of Losing Weight

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:02:13

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:13

       So this journey of losing weight, tell me about this process. What helped you?

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:02:19

       So I was like, as you can probably tell, I am qu- quite goal-orientated and, uh, and so I was like, "Okay, 2020 is gonna be my year of health." I've themed it. I'm gonna put it on Instagram so I'm like held responsible.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:31

       Yeah.

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:02:32

       Uh, you know, the other times it would be a bit more private, like, "Okay, I'm gonna go to this health farm," or whatever. And I'm like, "Okay, it's gonna be my year of health and I'm just gonna focus on being healthy." And, um, the thing, Anne Hathaway introduced me to this doctor who was, um, great, 'cause I th- I guess she saw me on a film we did together called The Hustle and she kinda saw me struggling.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:54

       Mm-hmm.

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:02:54

       And his specialty was kind of delving into emotional, emotions and how they can affect your physical health.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:02

       Mm-hmm.

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:03:02

       And I'd never even thought about that. Like, I just thought, you know, going on a diet's about eating less and exercising more, and, um, I just never thought... But to me, because I was an emotional eater, really the kicker was to process emotions and to learn how to process emotions. And obviously from my family environment, I had definitely not learned, um, any skills in that area and was kinda holding onto everything like a, so like a bag of groceries of this little trauma and this and the-, and then holding onto it.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:03:36

        Mm-hmm.

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:03:37

        Um, and so I had to start processing that, um, with a doctor. Like, we did a phone call every two weeks. And, and at first it's awful. You're like, "Oh my God, what do I talk," you know, and talk about my personal things, and it felt awful to do it at first. Um, and then I did it, and then gradually, it kind of, I started processing things and then I could release them, the emotions, and, and then, and then the weight loss kind of came. But because I wasn't working, I, I did do crazy workouts. Like I was wor- working out like two hours, two and a half hours a day, um, to help, you know, to help accelerate it. I was cooking my own meals. I was, you know, concentrating on eating high protein meals. And like I was just doing all the right things because I didn't have any stress of work and, um, and I was just like, "Okay, this is gonna be it." But the real thing was the emotional...

29. 1:04:37 – 1:06:37

    Letting Go Of My Emotional Baggage

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:04:37

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:37

       What, what are those bags that you let go of emotionally?

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:04:40

       I think a lot of it, like, I don't think I would've been able to write this book if I hadn't have done that, uh, emotional work with the doctor, because, um, there were just stuff that I suppressed, you know, a lot of stuff about my father and my complicated relationship with him and, and the sadness of him dying. Um, uh, he suddenly had a heart attack and, uh, and died right, you know, close after Pitch Perfect 1 came out. Um, and I think just all these little things in my childhood, um, that, you know, you, I just, I guess I never thought that that was associated with my weight, but it obviously was, and because I hadn't processed the things, it was, it was like I was holding onto barriers. It was like the weight was a barrier, one, for like intimacy, for example, you know. I never wanted a relationship or wanted to be attractive or whatever, and the weight was kind of a barrier because that kept all the people away.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:42

       Is, what is, do you, do you believe that... I've heard that from psychologists a few times, even on this podcast before. I've heard one particular guy called Johann Hari who wrote a book called Lost Connections tell me that in a study where they looked at, um, women who were clinically obese and then they put them through a weight loss program-

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:05:59

       Mm-hmm.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:00

       ... they found that some of the women would then re- regain weight, and the catalyst for that was them being hit on. They'd discovered in those women that there was-

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:06:07

       Oh.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:07

       ... early sort of abuse or there was issues, so they, they made this link that sometimes we use weight as a defense from sort of sexual advances or...

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:06:15

       And I definitely was 'cause I wanted to be in the fat funny friend role, which I played quite well in real life and on screen, because I didn't, uh, you know, I didn't want somebody to be coming home with me and then seeing how I really lived or felt, you know.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:31

        Why?

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:06:32

        I don't know. I guess I just was embarrassed or...

30. 1:06:37 – 1:10:34

    I Started Dating People At 30 Years Old

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:06:37

       yeah.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:37

       Do you remember m- m- men or women hitting on you at any point in your 20s and then-

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:06:42

       No.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:42

       ... actively rejecting them or...

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:06:43

       So I literally was like, s- some people were like, um, "But didn't anybody come up to you" (laughs) or whatever. I was like, "No." Like I honestly don't remember one person. Um, apart from the little boyfriend I had when I was 16, which was the most innocent thing ever where we just held hands and maybe kissed once. But anyways, uh, when I got famous from Pitch Perfect...... there was, like, a waiter at Chateau Marmont that, like, gave me his number and like, you know, basically said, you know, uh, "Take me home with you tonight," kind of thing. And I was shocked. And I was there with my buddy, Matt Lucas, and I was like, "What do I do with this?" Like, it was kind of like the first attention.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:23

       Mm-hmm.

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:07:24

       So only when I started, like, noticing any attention was when I became very successful. So that did... I almost felt like I was an in- invisible, attractiveness-wise, until that point.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:39

       Did you text the waiter?

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:07:40

       No, I didn't.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:41

        Why?

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:07:41

        But Matt goes, "You should've. What are you doing? Go. Go for it." And I go, "Matt, no," like, I was so shy in that area. I was like, "I'm not just gonna bring a waiter home from the Chateau Marmont." Um, weirdly I'd get a lot of people from prison as well when I became famous. They'd like DM you and like, go, "Oh, be my wife," and all this stuff (laughs) and I'm like, "Oh my God." Like... But no, like, I just... Unless I was just so blocked off to that I didn't notice anything-

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:10

        You knew-

    13. RWRebel Wilson1:08:10

        But... Yeah.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:11

        ... when a- when a woman in particular gets over 30, what I've heard-

    15. RWRebel Wilson1:08:15

        Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:15

        ... and especially considering some of my friends who are women over 30-

    17. RWRebel Wilson1:08:17

        Yeah.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:18

        ... is people around them sometimes start getting a bit pushy.

    19. RWRebel Wilson1:08:21

        Mm-hmm.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:22

        Like, their friends start, you know, "Come on, rebel."

    21. RWRebel Wilson1:08:24

        Yeah.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:24

        "Come on. Oh, go for him. Oh, give him a chance."

    23. RWRebel Wilson1:08:27

        Yeah.

    24. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:27

        Did you feel that sort of external pressure at all from people around you?

    25. RWRebel Wilson1:08:29

        Weirdly, my father would always say, "Oh..." On the limited times we'd talk. "Oh, are you seeing anybody?" I'd always get so angry at that question. I'd like, "Why is he asking me that?" As if I'd wanna get married like him and my mom were and how terrible that was. And I'd always just get angry at it and just be like, "No." And just, like, I don't know, I'd just shut down, uh, about that issue.

    26. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:55

        Is it because it came from him-

    27. RWRebel Wilson1:08:57

        But-

    28. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:57

        ... who was-

    29. RWRebel Wilson1:08:57

        Yeah, in particular. And I was like, "Oh God," like, out of all the people to say something. Most people didn't, didn't say anything. But I know there is that pressure, like, uh, for single women over 30. You just get, like, a little bit and... But I felt it more in my later 30s. Um, and I, I went on a dating app at one point to, like, try to meet people.

    30. SBSteven Bartlett1:09:25

        How did that go?
31. 1:10:34 – 1:11:58

    Losing My Virginity

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:10:34

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:34

       So going on those dates, is there, is there anxiety in your brain? Because, you know, if this date goes well, there might be an expectation that I go to the bedroom with this individual.

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:10:42

       Yeah. Well, that was all later. I mean, weirdly the, the guy I lost my virginity to at 35, I was, I was set up with. And, and I think part of why I think I might've been attractive was 'cause I was in, in like a number one movie at the time and whatever. And that guy was like a, an awesome guy, and I'd met him. And I'd waited so long at that point. I really wanted to lose my virginity to someone who I was really, really into. And I, and I just, I really liked this guy. I thought he was so funny and cute and, um, and potentially, like, marriage material at the time I met him. And so, and so when I did my Year of Love experiment, that was like a few years later. So obviously, uh, I mean, I don't think I could've done it if I was still a virgin going on all these dates, because, um, at least I'd had some experience by that point. But I dated like 50 people in the one year, in, in 2019, um, to just get some... I don't know, like, to find it... Like, 'cause I just was behind the eight ball. I'd never dated properly. Um, so I needed to get some (laughs) experience in that area and, uh, and legitimately trying to find the one. But, um, yeah, it didn't, didn't quite work out.

32. 1:11:58 – 1:13:35

    Experimenting With Ozempic

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:11:58

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:58

       You mentioned that you experimented with Ozempic.

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:12:01

       Oh, I did. But I wish I'd known about it in 2020.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:04

       Mm-hmm. It wasn't big then?

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:12:06

       No, I didn't even... If I had known about it, I would've tried it 100%.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:10

       Mm-hmm.

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:12:10

       Um, but more for, uh... I'd... Once I'd lost like 35 kilos, I was like, "I can't continue working out and having this level of focus. Like, I can't." And I was very worried that the weight would come back on. And then now, like, I mean, now I have gained back, um, 10 kilos or so because of, um, I guess having a baby. I, I just can't work out in the level that I used to. And then I directed a movie, which was a lot of sitting on a chair all day long and-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:42

       Mm-hmm.

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:12:42

       ... being stressed, still stress eating, and... Which I'll get under control when I'm, you know, not working seven days a week. Um, uh, and so I have tried it for a few months for, like, weight management, I guess you'd-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:12:56

        Did it help?

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:12:57

        ... I guess you'd call it. Um, oh, I definitely noticed that it, it did... I have like an unlimited ability to eat sweets and chocolate and ice cream and stuff. And that drug helped, um, for me not to feel full.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:11

        Mm-hmm.

    13. RWRebel Wilson1:13:11

        Whereas I wouldn't feel like that before. I would just, could eat a ton of it, like, you know. Um, so, so I actually, actually liked it. But, um-Yeah, I know, I think, I actually think for people like me, those drugs can be really effective. But obviously I'm not on it right now, but maybe if I'm, you know, prescribed it by a doctor I'd go back on

33. 1:13:35 – 1:15:40

    Backslash From Fans For Your Weight Loss

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:13:35

       it.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:35

       When you lose weight, your resonance with your audience changes as well.

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:13:40

       Mm-hmm.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:41

       Because to a l- I mean, I think Adele spoke to it as well, and when she lost a lot of weight, she... there was a backlash.

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:13:48

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:48

       Which is-

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:13:48

       I mean, I think there were some people going, "Oh, she won't be funny anymore," but then I had this movie come out senior year where I play a cheerleader who went into a coma and then wakes up 20 years later, and, uh, that was my first big comedy, and it got something like 89 million unique Netflix accounts watched it in the first ten days around the world-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:08

       Okay.

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:14:08

       ... which was huge, huge, huge numbers. So I was like, "Oh, well I think they're probably... people are wrong about the that I won't be funny anymore or..."

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:16

        But did they feel let down, some people?

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:14:18

        I think some people did, b- it's like, say if you're in a family and y- your sibling makes a change for the better, and then you feel like, "Oh, well it makes me feel bad because I didn't make the change."

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:30

        Mm-hmm.

    13. RWRebel Wilson1:14:31

        "And it makes me feel not as good about myself, so therefore I'm gonna hate them for, for changing. How dare they change? How dare they try to rise above?"

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:40

        Mm-hmm.

    15. RWRebel Wilson1:14:40

        Um, and I think there is some attitude, but then you think to those people, "Well what would make them happy?" You go like the John Candy way and you die of a heart attack, or, you know, uh, something happens to you, like you get some serious... Uh, I mean, my father died of a heart attack with complications with diabetes, so I was like, "I was heading towards the diabetes route if I kept going." And I was like, "Well does that make those people happy?" What, you just stay as you are and be unhealthy and then you die prematurely? That's not a great outcome. Like what do those people want? But I think as a comedian you have so many different things in your toolkit, uh, and mainly they're your personality, and, uh... So even though it's easy to go, "Oh, you have that physical irregularity and that's why people laugh," there are so many other elements, that's not as simplistic as that, and so I just utilize slightly different

34. 1:15:40 – 1:17:58

    How Have Your Acting Roles Changed Since You Lost Weight?

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:15:40

       things.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:15:40

       Have you noticed any change in the way that people book you professionally or, or respond to you professionally, or the roles you're given based on your-

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:15:47

       Well, now I do a lot more dramatic stuff. I mean, I'm still obviously doing the comedy stuff. I mean, I've just directed a movie, which is a big, huge new career step. But yeah, and I've got a movie coming out, The Almond and the Seahorse, here in the UK, which is totally serious. And I just played Lady Capulet in a film, which is totally not what you'd think I would, I would do. Uh, and it's awesome, but it's kind of how I started my career doing Shakespeare and stuff, um, before I was bigger, and so it's kind of coming back now to, to doing that kind of thing. But more I noticed, um... I mean now I'm kind of in the middle 'cause (laughs) I'm like, I've gained back some weight. It was so weird to be, to be someone who f- walks around the world kind of feeling a bit invisible, um, attractiveness wise, and then suddenly I lost all this weight and got so much positive validation. Like it was insane. Like people would open doors for you or carry your groceries to the car for you or offer to do something for you or whatever. And I just... It was so weird to experience that. And, and I've experienced both sides of the coin, like to be kind of being invisible in that area and then to be visible, and it was, it was bizarre. It was like the attention, and I was like, "Oh, is this what hot people feel o- or get all the time?" Um, and they get this kind of positive bias in society all the time, um, and I got such positive reinforcement for losing weight, um, from the press and from people... Like every single person would make some comment about it, and, and it's hard not to fall into liking that and, you know. Now I've just been too stressed being a director that I've kind of gone off the band h- health bandwagon, but-

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:33

       You've got-

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:17:33

       ... I will get back on it.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:35

       42 years old, you underwent IVF and you had your daughter-

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:17:37

       Mm-hmm.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:38

       ... Maurice, um, but it appears you're still a workaholic.

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:17:42

       Mm-hmm.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:42

        You just said earlier about working seven days a week.

    11. RWRebel Wilson1:17:44

        I know, I know. I've, I've come off a nine-month marathon of seven days a week of I did an action film, um, called Brideheart, directed, uh, my movie The Deb, written the book and yeah. So I'm about to have a holiday.

35. 1:17:58 – 1:20:28

    What Are You After Now?

    1. RWRebel Wilson1:17:58

       (laughs)

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:58

       What are you doing it for?

    3. RWRebel Wilson1:18:00

       Um...

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:01

       'Cause you could, you know, you've got multiple houses all over the world.

    5. RWRebel Wilson1:18:04

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:04

       You've got huge success. You've, you've d- you've done it, Rebel.

    7. RWRebel Wilson1:18:08

       I know, and I... and my love life, that is a happy story-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:12

       Mm-hmm.

    9. RWRebel Wilson1:18:12

       ... to everyone listening. (laughs)

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:13

        Yeah, I know.

Episode duration: 1:34:49