She is one of the biggest stars of the new Hollywood, Rebel Wilson just made the movie The Hustle with Anne Hathaway that she chooses to shoot in Spain as she was the producer of the movie.

With more than a dozen movies coming out, Wilson, who was a sensation with the trilogy Pitch Perfect, confesses her passion for the Spanish culture and her wonderful experience shooting The Hustle in Majorca where she was lucky to meet the Spanish tennis icon Rafael Nadal.

In New York we had the opportunity to talk to Rebel in exclusive for us. 

Q: You are a big deal now in Hollywood as an actress and also as a producer.  Why did you decide to jump on production?

A: You are more invested with the producer because with this one it was my idea to do the remake and so I was involved in the process of casting Anne, in the script in getting the director and also the postproduction. 

Q: Why you decide to do this movie, The Hustle?

A: I had a meeting with MGM and they asked me for the titles I was interested in doing a remake. I remember I studied MGM in film school, as in the golden years of Hollywood they were one of the top ones. The thing with moviegoer audiences is that remakes are doing very well. I loved this movie as a kid and I thought that Michael Caine was so funny and then as a comedy fan, when I watched as an adult no wonder why the story is being told so many times in a few different ways because is tied in a very smart way and the structure is really clever and really good. And with the #MeToo movement, I thought it was a good take on changing gender on a movie. 

Q: This movie was shoot in Spain. How do you like Spain and Spanish culture?

A: We shoot in London and Majorca, Spain is a pretty good double. Yes, I did have fun in Majorca is so beautiful, we stayed in like a new park Hyatt and Anne and I had joined presidential suites and cocktails on the balcony. Each night we watched the sunset and we ate tapas and drink wine we had a great time in Spain and had time to meet Rafael Nadal, who is like the biggest celebrity in Majorca. He is amazing and I do play tennis as well. One day at his restaurant we had dinner. 

Q: Did you have time to learn some Spanish?

A: Of course, as much as you can learn living two months in a country.

But the truth is that I had time to learn and to understand much of what they said. Is a beautiful language, I want to come back and keep learning, I’m in love with Spain. 

P: Any Spanish author that you know or have read?

R: You will be surprise but I’ve found a Spanish woman who lives in Berlin that is an amazing writer from Argentina. She writes short stories, fiction, and is truly good. Her name is Samantha Schwaling. 

P: Do you feel typecast in Hollywood?

R: I don’t want to play the same type of characters all the time and I have a couple of movies coming up for award season one of them is Cats where I play a cat and that is very different.  I don’t like to be typecast, obviously. 

P:  Do you feel a role model for young girls?

R:  Definitely it is important to represent all types of women and I never felt it will come to that. I am a size 14 to 16 that is the actual average of the American women right now and I do represent the majority of the American women but when you look plus size actresses   in films is like less the 1 percent. We are the fifty percent of the population in America so is weird that there is such a big gap in representation of diversity. 

Q:  Pitch Perfect changed your life?

A: Completely. The day that movie came out, my life changed and hopefully for the better. Then I couldn’t go out to the mall or a supermarket with people coming out to me. That week was the first time I had paparazzi outside my house. It was crazy. I never got into acting for fame, I did it to express myself through characters and that’s why it didn’t affect me so much. I know I play crazy characters but I’m very sensible and if I were famous when I was younger probably it would had affected me much more. When the fame came, I was 31 and I still think that everything can go away in a second. I know the difference between reality and craziness. 

Q: Did you have to adjust when you change Australia for United States?

A: Yes. In Australia you can still say race jokes, and you can’t do that in America. I learned that the hard way. Also, the language that I would use in Australia, being still English, was like a lot of slang and things that America would not understand. Half of the things that I would use as a comedian in Australia, I can’t use  in America. 

Q: The idea of the buddy movies came in origin from El Quixote, do you think is possible to translate that camaraderie to women stories?

A: Yes absolutely. There is a bit of sisterhood in this movie and we do play friends but is more about female empowerment. It is true they don’t think on women to play this type of movies.

 

María Estévez

Correspondent Writer

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