Australian actress Rebel Wilson lied about her age and upbringing, thinking it would help her career. And it probably did. She was able to play teenaged roles by pretending to be in her early twenties when she was already over the age of thirty.
She also lied about her upbringing, in order to make herself look more interesting. For instance, she pretended her family was very poor, lower class, and rather awful. Said she came from the ghetto. And lived in Zimbabwe for a year where she almost died of a dangerous disease. All of this was a complete fabrication — she hailed from a nice little middle class Australian family and never set foot in Africa, or caught a dangerous disease.
Is it a bad thing, to lie about your age to get roles? Not sure. I mean, money is money and it’s mighty sweet to have. I think Rebel’s biggest crime is how godawful annoying and painfully unfunny she is and still somehow ends up appearing in a shitload of what are supposed to be comedies. The lying is just, sweet icing on the cake.
When she was already 35, she was still claiming to be 29. Eventually a newspaper found her birth records and other personal information and exposed her lies. A lot of ‘teenage movies’ have teenagers played by people in their twenties. But no one took this quite as far as Rebel Wilson.