This year, Rebel Wilson stepped into the role of a lifetime: mom.
Ten years ago, the Australian actor emerged as a funny girl in the entertainment limelight. With her portrayal of irreverent women in movies like “Bachelorette” and the hit musical comedy “Pitch Perfect,” she carved out a place for herself in the American mainstream with her ability to make audiences keel over with laughter.
Now, as a newly minted parent, she plays a part that is quite a bit more demanding. In November, Wilson announced on Instagram that she’d become the mother to a little girl via a surrogate.
In an exclusive interview for TODAY, the actor spoke with Maria Shriver about the moment that motherhood changed her life.
“You hold the baby and cut the umbilical cord and literally from — from that moment on, you’re just like — it was just, like, amazing and so emotional,” she recalled.
Still, Wilson can attest to the fact that motherhood does come with its obstacles.
“It’s really challenging. I have this big international career and — you know, I'm, like, the breadwinner of my family — I like to think,” she explained. “So it’s really challenging too, like, ‘Well, now how do I do all the things and be a great mother and great partner and all of that?’”
During their conversation, Shriver and Wilson also touched on how the actor’s upcoming drama, “The Almond and the Seahorse,” brought on “firsts” that thrust her into unexpected love.
In her latest movie, directed by Celyn Jones and Tom Stern, Wilson will take a turn at making audiences reach for the tissues. In the film, Wilson plays Sarah, a woman whose husband’s traumatic brain injury has prevented him from holding onto new memories. In her attempt to find support, Sarah develops a camaraderie with a woman who opens her heart to new terrains.
“I’d never kissed a woman before,” Wilson explained to Shriver about a scene in which she shares a kiss with actor Charlotte Gainsbourg. “It kind of led to this kind of discovery — which led to my awesome partner Ramona. I might not have been open to that if I hadn’t done the emotional work.”
Earlier this year, in June, Wilson announced that she’d begun dating Ramona Agruma, who owns Lemon Ve Limon, a sustainable clothing brand.
“I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess,” she captioned an Instagram post at the time.
Then, months later, Wilson announced the birth of her daughter Royce Lillian whom she co-parents with Agruma.
While filming for “The Almond and the Seahorse” has finished, and the movie will debut this week, Wilson spoke to Shriver about how she will continue to carry the torch of the movie’s subject matter.
In “The Almond and the Seahorse,” the movie’s characters are required to navigate the issue of head injuries and brain trauma.
Recently, Wilson has paired up with Abbott and the Brain Injury Association of America to launch Concussion Awareness Now, a coalition that seeks to raise awareness on concussion diagnosis and treatment.
