Rebel Wilson has told a Melbourne court of a hallucination she had about winning an Oscar while she was struck down with malaria.
Wilson, who is suing Bauer Media, the publishers of Woman’s Day, for defamation, is in the witness box on the second day of the defamation trial.
She said while in her “gap year” after secondary school, she lived in South Africa where she became seriously ill.
She was so sick she felt like she’d contracted a “voodoo disease” and was disconnected from her body.
Wilson told the court that in her hallucination she rapped her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, and upon waking realised she had to pursue the vision.
The Fat Pizza and Pitch Perfect star is fighting Bauer over a series of articles published in 2015 that claimed she told “tall tales” to add a “touch of fantasy” to her childhood in order to make it in Hollywood.
On Tuesday in the Supreme Court of Victoria, she tearfully recounted the “nasty” articles she claims damaged her career.
“These articles were a deliberate malicious take-down of me,” the 37-year-old actress said before an all-female jury.
She denied claims from Bauer’s defence that the articles, which she says portrayed her as a serial liar and a fake, were light-hearted in tone and had no serious effect on her.
The articles claimed Wilson had been dishonest about her age, name and background.
Wilson says in the past two years since the articles were published, she has only had two roles – one for Absolutely Fabulous, which she did as a favour, and a stage role in London.
“It’s not lucrative,” she told the court.
“The reason why I’m here today is to stand up for myself and to stand up for my family, who’ve been harassed.”
The Californian resident told the court she had been born Melanie Elizabeth Bownds, but that her mother had wanted to name her after a little girl called Rebel that sang at their wedding.
She said she later legally changed her first name to Rebel and her surname to her matrilineal Wilson.
