this is bbc news. the headlines: officials in the eastern ukrainian city of kharkiv say air strikes have killed at least six civilians near a post office. the victims were receiving aid when the missiles hit. the city, which is less than 25 miles from the russian border, has faced relentless shelling and bombardment. western leaders, meeting in brussels, have promised to increase military aid to ukraine, and send more troops to neighbouring countries in eastern europe. president biden and the european commission president, ursula von der leyen, said they were united against what they called russia's unjustified and unprovoked war. the us and other western countries have condemned the taliban's decision to shut girls secondary schools in afghanistan, just hours after they reopened for the first time in seven months. they said the decision harms the group's prospects for legitimacy, and urged the hardline islamist

movement to reconsider. now on bbc news, 100 women talks to rebel wilson. trying to make your name in hollywood isn't easy, especially if you're a female actress who doesn't look a stereotypical way. enter rebel wilson who has defied convention to become one of the most famous faces in the industry. she's been a part of some of the biggest comedy films in recent years, including the pitch perfect franchise and bridesmaids. but like many of us during the pandemic, she's been reassessing her life. i've come here to la, where rebel is now based, for this bbc 100 women interview. we talk about why she lost weight, her challenges with fertility, and how she's balancing that with her professional move into becoming a director, and she talks to me about how she's hoping that move

will empower her to make cultural changes in the industry after experiencing sexual harassment herself. rebel wilson, thank you so much for talking to bbc 100 women. it is my pleasure. how are you? i feel like i'm very bbc today as well — i'm very serious, profesh. i think you could almost, like, be a newsreaderfor us. i could, you know. coming up now at the 11am hour — wait, is that what they say? no. coming up! breaking news, um, yeah i — i probably won't get hired from this. it's so interesting because you are one of the most high—profile actresses in hollywood. i'd say you're a household name. i'm in the top 1,000, for sure, i'd put myself. you're one of the top 1,000 actresses in hollywood! but you have been in those really iconic films that people watch over and over again — like, i think i might�*ve watched bridesmaids an insane amount of times. i mean, that was my firstjob in america and, like,

what a firstjob, to get — to be in that kind of ensemble and to be in a movie that, really, was one of the first — even though, obviously, women have been funny for at least 20 years — but, no, i'mjoking, forever — but that bridesmaids was one of the first where they were like, "wow! women are funny in hollywood!" and so to get that as my — my firstjob in america was epic. and also, to be in the pitch perfect franchise, which is, like, the most successful musical comedy films of all time — which blows my mind when you think about that. i was like, "god, are they really?" and they're like, "yeah they really are," like, "bang, one, two and three", and i'm like it's so special. and i'm sure it will be eclipsed at some point — you know, it's like 0lympic records — someone will come in and, like, be better. but it's — it's so awesome to be a part of something so special and it's something people all around the world have really, really enjoyed. yeah. is it true, though, that you could've been a lawyer? well, i am a lawyer.

oh, you are a lawyer?! yeah, i graduated in 2009. so you could be a lawyer. ifeel like i have the photo. it's not my best smile but i was very proud of myself that day. you look so happy and pleased! this is 2009 when i graduated. it was a very happy day because was already, obviously, i was a professional actress — i'd been in 10 tv shows by the time i graduated law school — but there was something about me that i was like, "i have to finish. "i have to complete this degree." it was very, very difficult — like, in australian law and medicine, you know, you need the top marks in your final exams to get in and i got into, like, the best law school, so i was like, "ok, i'm going to, like, graduate," even though it was clear i was working in — as an actress. what was your parents�* reaction then when you were like, "i want to be an actress in hollywood"? i always imagined, though, that that — those words scare parents, right? it was bad. it was really bad. i was a very studious young lady, so yeah, they — they definitely thought i would do something good — like — like a more

traditional—type job, put it that way. so i took a gap year, which i thought was really smart after high school, and i was what's called a youth ambassador for australia, based in southern africa, so that really changed the trajectory of my life. i was going in and out of malarial zones all the time with the work that i had to do over there, and i got malaria really bad when we were in mozambique. and when i was in the hospital back in south africa recovering from it, i had a hallucination that i was an actress, and, like, it was so real! everyone thought, "no, she'sjust demented," but that was enough to convince me that that's what my life was gonna be. so i come back to australia and i go, "guys, i'm going to become a professional actress — i have seen it, i'm gonna win an academy award. it's, like, really good," and everyone was like, "oh, my god". like, "no". like, "you're an idiot." like, "no—one�*s gonna pick you," like, "you're not an actress. "like, you're not — you're naturally quite a shier person." i was like, "yeah,

but i've seen the vision." so i went and enrolled in law school but did acting sneaky at night to try and get in there, yeah. so what about, like, so when bridesmaids took off, was that... yeah, i mean, that was big �*cause they came — they came over for the premiere and they were like, "oh, she is like legit now," yeah. it's interesting because i have read that you — you were successful with bridesmaids at age 30. yeah, yeah, i came to hollywood when i was... and you call yourself a late bloomer. i definitely do think that. why, though? i was 29, turning 30, and i had a great career in australia at that point and then, i got offered a big network tv contract in australia and i was like, "oh, but if i don't go now..." like, it's a bit late if you're already 30 or whatever, to come to hollywood, i think, as a woman — although there's many exceptions to that rule and many ladies that have broken out in their 50s and stuff and have incredible careers. you don't hear enough about that, do we? yeah, you don't hear about it, but normally... because i think 30's still young. it's like the younger, more ingenue girls and then they develop more,

so i wasjust, like, "ok, if i don't go now to hollywood, "i'll never make it," so i sold everything that i owned — my car, my computer, my apartment — everything. i came to america with one suitcase and, like, one little pillow, but like... but it was a bit late, and i was probably overqualified for the very small role i had in bridesmaids. you are now producing, so you've got credits on the hustle and isn't it romantic? yes, isn't it romantic was my first one. the hustle, with anne hathaway, and then now senior year, which is a big cheerleading comedy. what's that like? tell us a little bit about what — how it's different. it's great, it's great to have the power because obviously coming up in the industry, i had to work for, like, a lot of guys, coming up where you kind of get the crappier roles — like, the rolesjust weren't as well written, as well developed. it would just be very hard to kind of put kind of your comedy or yourjokes sometimes into it if you didn't have any power. so what i did is i used

all those experiences in a positive way and, like, learned stuff from watching these guys and — but really wanted to get to the point where i had the power to make the movies and choose the storylines and choose the characters and choose who i put in the movies and it's just cool �*cause you can be more authentic and put more of your messages — and my latest one, it's just so girl power and there's so many... and this is your movie that you're directing next year? uh, no, this is the one i'vejust shot. you've just shot that? yeah, just shot. and you are gonna — you are directing a movie as well? yeah, and then i've now — now gone even further and been offered a directing job for a movie script that i've written called girl group, so that'll go into production in 2022. and i'm so passionate about the stories i want to tell and so, why not go for the topjob? talking of empowerment, you've been on a year of health. yeah. i didn't predict the pandemic, but weirdly, i thought — sometimes i'm a little psychic and i go, "oh, ifeel like i'm not gonna be

working much this year "and i feel like turning 40, i'm gonna, like, concentrate "on my health" and i was dealing with fertility stuff and the doctor is like, "well, you know, if you were healthier, "you'd have better chances," so that all kind of culminated, and so the moment it hit 2020, iwas like, "0k, yeah, it's gonna be my year of health. "i'm gonna put it, like, publicly out on instagram "and stuff for accountability! " but i think that that's. .. and who knows whether that was the smartest but... and why was that important for you to do it that way? um, because i did want to make a lasting change and i wanted to be accountable to myself for it, so making it very public kind of helped — helped. it was risky, i guess. before i — i had lost weight and then put it back on and, you know, you get criticism sometimes for that, and it wasjust, yeah, ijust was like, "0k, i'lljust make it — "make the decision to make it public. " the number of headlines about you losing weight has been phenomenal. oh, it's insane. because i look at — what happened for me in 2019 — i had, like, four pretty successful movies come out and,

like, had done all this amazing stuff career—wise, but then in the next year, all i did wasjust lose 80 pounds. and, like, the attention that gets... it was insane. ..is way more than being in an academy award—nominated film and, like, producing my first movie and then doing all this stuff. can i — can i read you one headline? oh, yeah, sure. "rebel wilson has a bond girl moment "in an incredible curve—hugging swimsuit." wow. how do you feel about those words? i never thought i'd be described anywhere near a bond girl! but how do you feel about those sorts of headlines about your weight loss? i've noticed that it's been getting a lot of attention and i go, "so, is that what a woman has to do "in the world is lose — just lose weight "to, like, get attention?" for me, it was so much bigger. it was aboutjust being the healthiest version of me, so it wasn't about the size or a number or whatever. but it's fascinating — why are people so obsessed with it? like, i know what it's like to be a woman who is essentially invisible to most people because of not being seen as,

like, traditionally beautiful or whatever, so i know what it's like when nobody holds the door open for you or — or, you know, just looks at you almost like you can have no value because you're not seen as good looking to them, so i know what that's like. and then you really notice — you get, like, this bias towards you, just purely because of your appearance, which is wrong — like i do think it is wrong — but it's — you can't deny that that's how society does operate, so... it's kind of conflicting. it must leave you feeling a bit mixed about it because on the one hand, like, you shouldn't have to lose weight to be suddenly be treated nicely. no, no, and i'm proud that the message has got across is that it wasn't aboutjust losing weight, it was just about me being healthier overall, and that's what — that's what i'm trying to encourage other people out there, because that is — should be the goal. it never be to fit some certain weird beauty standard that society deems is the beauty standard of this year, or — it should never be about that. my, like, body type before, when i was a size 16 to 18, was, like, the body type of the 17th, 18th century. like, iwould have

crushed in that era. but i got a lot of pushback from my own team, actually, here in hollywood, when i said, "ok, i'm gonna do this year of health. "i'm gonna — ifeel like i'm really going to physically "transform and change my life" and they were like, "why? "why would you want to do that?" because i was earning millions of dollars being, you know, the funny fat girl, like, and being that person, and i go, well, because even though i was still very confident being bigger and, you know, loved myself — you know, would rock a red carpet — and even though i was probably double the size, sometimes triple the weight of other actresses, but like, i still felt confident in that. but i knew deep down inside some of the emotional eating behaviours i was doing was not healthy. like, i did not need a tub of ice cream every night — that was me, you know, numbing emotions by using food, which wasn't the healthiest thing.

was that dealing with fame? i think it was — i think it was dealing with not being a natural performer and having to perform almost every day and just things i hadn't kind of processed or dealt with in my life that — that was manifesting as emotional eating and then i was like "that's not the healthiest!" this was when i first got pretty famous after pitch perfect and i'm like "look at me — i'm, you know, rocking, like, a black leather bodysuit, custom—made". i love that person. like, yeah, she was struggling with emotional eating but i also, like, just love that girl and i love that she was just out there, living her best life, playing this character called fat amy and, like, andjust, like, getting out there and crushing it. with — with the character of fat amy, you know, there were those sort of fat jokes that were made as well. do you feel now

you can't do that? well, see, it's weird — i looked at fat amy and the pitch perfect scripts and go "that's the best character," i personally thought, so i would be honoured to play that character. i never thought of it as a negative, because i'm the type of person that some people see, yeah, being biggeras, like, a hindrance to being an actress and i go "i'm gonna use it and use it for my comedy". there were some people that said "oh, well, will she not be funny now?" and i'm like "well, check out my new movie, senior year, coming out and see what you think, guys". what it has done career—wise is open up this whole other door of, like, dramatic roles and so now, i've this great movie that i just shot in the north of england called the almond and the seahorse, based on a west end play and would i have been given that role if i was bigger? i don't know. because people would still — might associate me too much with some of the comedy roles and physically transforming

and giving a performance that is so different, i think it helped, looking different. i'd be interested to know if you feel that pressure of being put on a pedestal when it comes to the body positivity movement. yeah, i guess. i mean, because i was somebody who was, like, really advocates for, like, loving — loving yourself and at whatever size, and you want to, like, love and embrace yourself and be positive about your body — you're only given that body, so that is what you've got to work with, that's your canvas — but also, i don't want to be seen to, like, promote unhealthiness or extreme, you know, and some of the things that i was doing — emotionally eating and carrying the extra weight — was — was unhealthy. so what i'm trying to do is say you can be whatever size you want. just try to be the healthiest version of you — and that can look different for different people. you've shared your weight loss journey on instagram and you've got millions of followers

on social media. are you conscious of the sorts of pressures, i guess, there are for young women as well on social media? oh, yeah, because now if you get into this culture of, like, touching up all of your photos and whatever, it's unrealistic and — but i don't know, but then i'm definitely guilty of, like, posting thirst trap photos on instagram — mainly because i'm still single so i'm like "oh, yeah, 0k". that's mainly why i do it. but also, i didn't think it could be contributing to some larger problem in society, which i hope it isn't and then, if so... you never thought about that... ? ifeel like, yeah, i may — i've grown into my looks 100% and, like, feel like i'm at 41 now, like, looking, yeah, better than i ever have before — which i think is rare. most people peak, don't they, at like 20? and maybe for me, it's about my life journey coming into line, you know, and for me, it only kind of clicked together at a0 properly. but what i try to do is share

just enough that hopefully people can understand, like, some of the struggles i've been through and then, and like the reason why i share it is to hopefully help people, so why i've been sharing things about fertility or talking about a health transformation and emotional eating is ultimately to try to help people. the fertility issue that you've talked about, that's really personal and intimate. yeah, i have something — i was diagnosed when i was, like, 20 with something called polycystic ovarian syndrome and — which made sense, like, that i gained a lot of weight rapidly with that and then have fertility issues and so, it's like, i think something like 10% of women have it, so it's very common, and a lot of people don't know they have it and so, it's just — i think it's just good to talk — that's why i love when everybody opens up about all sorts of things now. mental health is obviously a big topic with a lot of celebs and people — high—profile people talking about that, yeah. but fertility is a really

interesting one because i don't think a lot of women, certainly in the public eye, open up about it. behind the scenes, like, all my actress friends are all freezing their eggs and all kind of pursuing options and so, we all talk about it, but not — not just so publicly sometimes because it can be an emotional roller—coaster and i certainly, you know, froze — went all this trouble and froze my eggs and then, unfortunately because of my condition, the quality of the eggs wasn't — wasn't good enough and i have to repeat the process and keep doing it and keep trying and put a lot of effort in. and that was part of the reason why i tried to get healthier as well. i'm still trying on the fertilityjourney, even though, like, it is emotional and you get hopeful and then, you know, your hopes are dashed and so it's like, ifeel that any woman going through it but i was the classic example of, like, a career woman who went out into the world, didn't even think about kids and then suddenly, in your mid—30s, is like "oh, hang on — do i want that as an option? "and if i do, what do i need to do?"

it could be great if i had my own children but i don't know whether that's gonna happen and so, i'm trying not to have any expectations set on an outcome, just that i'm the healthiest i can be, i'm gonna try and what will happen will happen. you tweeted a few years back about sexual harassment that you had experienced in the industry. yep. and you had said at the time you were no longer going to be polite about it. tell me a little bit more about what happened to you — if you want to. yeah, um, i mean... and how you dealt with it. i guess, in terms of sexual harassment, like, all women in the industry have had, like, things like the little comments when you've been in meetings and you've be — try to be one of the boys and, like, laugh along with the jokes and even they're talking about other actresses and stuff in a way that's, like, not really cool. but i only had, like, two incidents. one is the classic with a director in a hotel room — that was in australia. and i was so innocent and naive — i was in my 20s,

and i literally thought i was going to that — to have a meeting about comedy and talk about comedy. and then, he kept trying to give me more and more alcohol and i'm not a big drinker, luckily, and then, the director gets a call from his wife and i'm sitting there on the couch and it was one of those phones that if somebody left a message, you could hear it through the speaker of the phone, and she started saying "0h, you've got rebel in that hotel room." like, "you're going to sleep with her," blah, blah, blah. and i heard the message and that was the first time i thought "oh, my god". like, "what is this?" "what's going on? " and then ijust grabbed my bag and got out of there, luckily before anything had happened. and i wonder if that woman — if i hadn't heard her voice on the phone, screaming through the phone, i — what could've happened ? i don't know. did you tell anyone at the time? no, because it was a big directorand i didn't... and you've never named names? no, maybe that is the legal side of me that you don't —

i don't want to go through any unnecessary court cases 01’ whatever. and, yeah, ijust — yeah, just got on with the job and did it and luckily, nothing else happened, apart from that one night. and then, many years later, as i'm in hollywood and, you know, pretty — pretty famous, the pitch perfect movies had come out and stuff and had a male co—star was onset, summons me kind of out of my trailer in the middle of the day and takes me to, like, this room, where a couple of his male buddies are with their iphones and he pulls down his pants and asked me to bleep. and i know, again, like, it can kind of sound comic, the way i tell the story, because i've processed it now and i was in shock. i was like "what's going on?" just kept saying no. like "what is this?" like "no". and his buddies are laughing

and he's kind of clearly getting off on it. this was before me too, though, so i didn't quite know what to do and i was in a foreign country, so i called my agent, i reported it, we reported it to the studio — i apparently was the fourth woman to have made a complaint against this guy, too — but i stayed and ifinished thejob which i felt like it was the professional thing to do — which now, i wouldn't do, if something like that occurs. now, i think i have the courage to be like... i'm walking. "ok, that is disgusting." 0bviously some people have been picked up in the metoo movement but there's a lot of others that — that haven't and now, i think it would be different — i wouldn't have as much empathy... is that what you mean when you say you're going no longer be polite moving forward? yeah. it's not like things change overnight with the metoo movement and then, suddenly it's all safe, and... it's not. like, there have been very positive changes but there still — there still need to be more. but i guess those are the changes that you can make now that you're in these roles

as a producer and director. yeah, and so, like, on my movie senior year that ijust produced, i had, like, a young actress play the younger version of me and she came — came over from australia, so she's in a foreign country, she's vulnerable and just i said, like, "if you have any — any issues, if anybody is doing something, you know, or says something or whatever, please come to me as the female producer on the film" and i want to particularly, you know, protect — and i had a lot of young cast in that movie and just — i feel very conscious of, like, you know, making sure they feel safe. are you hopeful that you'll win an academy award one day? is that your aim? uh, yeah, that — that would be the goal. and i was so lucky to be injojo rabbit, that got nominated for, like, best picture — that was such a gorgeous movie and i think — and then now, you know, doing projects that have a really good cachet, that's — that's awesome, but i still will do the comedies as well, obviously. yeah, ican�*t... yeah, i think that's what people wouldn't want you to leave.

no, i can't — that's my — that's my love as well. hello there. there are some big changes in the weather pattern on the way, but notjust yet. on thursday, despite the haziness of the sunshine, temperatures reach 20 celsius in east yorkshire, the warmest place in the country. it's a few degrees cooler than that in northern ireland and across scotland, where we did see more cloud. and we've still got a weak weather front draped in the northern isles, bringing some damp weather here. otherwise, it's high pressure that's dominating the weather. with that stagnant air and no mixing, we've continued to see some poor air quality, and we'll find some high levels of air pollution, again, across some eastern parts of england, in particular on friday. underneath that high pressure with clear skies, though, we start the day on a chilly note, as we have done over the past few days. temperatures in rural areas won't be far away from freezing.

there may be a few pockets of mist and fog to start the day across scotland and northern ireland. but away from the northern isles, there'll be more sunshine on friday for scotland and northern ireland. plenty of sunshine for england and wales — the odd shower could pop up over the high ground in northern ireland, southern scotland, and northern england. but essentially for most, it's a dry and largely sunny day. and quite warm again for the time of year — 18—19 celsius for england and wales. the high pressure is still there across the uk for saturday. there is that weather front that's moving its way down into the north sea, bringing with it some cloud — that'll be important for the second half of the weekend. could be some mist and low cloud affecting some northwestern parts of the uk, but otherwise it's another dry and mostly sunny picture, and those temperatures showing little change, really, on saturday. but on sunday, we are expecting some changes — still got the high pressure, but all that moisture, all that cloud that's in the north sea will be dragged into that area of high pressure for the second half of the weekend. a lot of uncertainty still about the extent of the cloud, but it looks like for england and wales, there will be some cloud, at least for a while, quite low cloud, misty weather, too. where it sticks, it'll

be quite a bit cooler, but further north, across a good part of scotland and northern ireland, there's likely to be some more warm sunshine on the way. into next week, though, this is where we see significant changes — not least because we'll start to see a northerly wind moving down, and that will really drop the temperatures. as the high recedes early next week, we've got the chance of seeing some rain. and then, that northerly wind arrives — it will be much colder by day, and also colder by night.

this is bbc news. i'm lucy grey. our top stories: a city under constant russian bombardment. we report from the front line inside kharkiv. you can see what they're up against here. this is daily, but the steadfastness of these men has been found notjust in kharkiv, but around the world. they've had four weeks of this and still they remain. the russians haven't been able to break their lines. as soldiers fight for peace in ukraine, they tell us about their hopes. mainly, we discuss the time when all of it well end, when we will come back to normal life, when everything will be good, and it won't be dangerous to go outside and have a walk.