Featured Image Credit: IFC Films/Rebel Wilson/Instagram
Topics: Australia, US News, Film and TV, Entertainment
Dominic Smithers
Topics: Australia, US News, Film and TV, Entertainment
Rebel Wilson says an onscreen kiss with a woman led to her undergoing a sexual awakening.
The Australian actor is set to star in upcoming drama The Almond and The Seahorse, alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg.
In the film, both of their characters kiss, something which Wilson says she was pretty nervous about.
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Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter this week, the 42-year-old said she had never been intimate in that way with another woman before.
And she admitted that it actually was never meant to happen in the first place.
"When I first read the script, Charlotte’s character, Toni, was written as a man," revealed Wilson.
"Originally, it was supposed to be Pierce Brosnan playing that character, but then schedules didn’t align.
"I felt that we should open it up to a woman and they offered it to Charlotte. I don’t know why I said that but I just felt it could work."
In the movie, Wilson plays an archeologist whose husband is recovering from a traumatic brain injury. She finds solace in Gainsbourg's character, who is going through a similar experience with her wife.
She went on to say that she wasn't sure how she was going to approach the kissing scene.
"I was so nervous," she said. "Charlotte Gainsbourg was the first woman I’d ever kissed. I’d never kissed a woman before, so I was thinking, 'Oh God, how’s that going to go?'
"Weirdly, I think that our scenes could’ve been a little steamier. With male directors, I think they were being cautious and respectful.
"Once I’d gotten over that initial [anxiety] of kissing a woman and getting into the scene, I thought maybe it should be more about the emotional moment and we could even make it a bit more sexy or even go a bit further.
"But we were on a tight schedule so we had to keep it moving."
Wilson said that while she didn't think the kissing scene was a 'big deal', it had a profound impact on her personal life.
It gave her the push to explore other aspects of her sexuality that she hadn't before.
She explained: "I had kind of had a situation with a woman before, not a sexual relationship and we hadn’t kissed or anything, but then the kiss with Charlotte came up.
"I didn’t think it was that big of a deal or anything. Then, weirdly, through kissing her in my professional life, I thought, 'Well, maybe I should do that for real in my personal life and see how it goes', which I did.
"That was in 2021 and then I met Ramona at the end of 2021. If I hadn’t had the experience with Charlotte or the experience with the other woman, I don’t know if I would have ever met Ramona.
"Having those experiences opened my heart up to it as a possibility. I’m grateful for those two experiences. It changed my love life completely. It’s such an awesome thing."