Rebel Wilson: 8 things to know about the star of Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit, Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids and possibly the biggest flop of 2019, Cats

Feisty Australian actress and comedian Rebel Wilson, who stars in the Oscar-winning film Jojo Rabbit , turned 40 on March 2. Here, she talks about never having planned to be in showbiz, how comedy became her speciality, and her desire to empower women

1. She was the producer of two of the movies she starred in (The Hustle  and  Isn’t It Romantic)  

I’ve discovered that there’s a lot more responsibility when you’re playing the lead and you have to carry a movie. Basically it means you’re in every scene, which is something I’m not used to, and I don’t have three or four days off in between my scenes. Sometimes that means 16-hour days on the set. So it’s an adjustment, but I’m very happy to be in this position and I hope to continue producing and directing one day, too.

2. Even though Pitch Perfect gave her incredible recognition, it was actually Bridesmaids that really jump-started her Hollywood career

Bridesmaids was my first job in America. I was so close to getting a couple of movies, and I’m so glad that Bridesmaids was the first one. I went in and improvised for them, with Kristen Wiig, for an hour in a room. Suddenly, Judd Apatow (the producer) said: “Tell Kristen about your love life. Go!” And I said: “But, I’ve prepared the script.” And I just kept going for an hour while they filmed it all. I went for Melissa McCarthy’s role, but I was a bit too young for that. But they really liked my audition, and so they added me as the roommate. They just added it in because they liked my audition. And then, of course, when the movie came out … it was just like, “Bang!”

3. She worked long hours wearing the Cats  costume when filming the movie

It was definitely hard work … On my set, I would be singing and dancing and sweating a lot like everyone else. They deliberately kept the set hot so that people wouldn’t cool down and perhaps injure themselves. But that meant that it was like being in a sauna and we would have to do sometimes 60 takes per shot because all the singing and dancing was live and we had to get it all in one shot, and also because Tom (Hooper, the director) was obsessive about getting everything perfect. So that was brutal. But when I would watch Robbie (co-star Fairchild) do all those amazing jumps and flips and spins, knowing that he might be doing that 60 times – it seemed incredible to me.

4. She studied law in Australia and had no plan to enter show business

I had no idea what was going to happen. I was studying law during the day and taking theatre classes at night. I was an ordinary girl from a suburb in Sydney and I didn’t have a clue about getting into the film business. But then I saw the possibilities and the more I worked at it, I saw that it was something I was good at and I just kept at it.