The saga began in June 2024 when Wilson posted an incendiary video on Instagram. The actress claimed that The Deb had been selected for the closing night of the Toronto International Film Festival but her business partners were preventing it from premiering because she had discovered their “bad behaviour”. She then named them as British producers Amanda Ghost, Ghost’s husband, Gregor Cameron, and Vince Holden.
Wilson accused them of “inappropriate behaviour” towards the lead of the movie – subsequently identified as Australian performer Charlotte MacInnes, 26 – and embezzling funds. Wilson claimed that, in retaliation, the producers had “tried to make my life hell” and were now burying the film. Wilson concluded that if The Deb “doesn’t play at Toronto, it’s because of these absolute f—wits”.
A spokesman for the producers fired back, saying that they did intend to release the film, and that Wilson was promoting “a false narrative to advance her own agenda”.
The row swiftly escalated to duelling lawsuits involving high-profile California lawyers. The producers hired Camille Vasquez, who represented Johnny Depp against his ex-wife Amber Heard, while Wilson opted for Bryan Freedman (although she is no longer working with him). Freedman represented Michael Jackson’s estate in a suit against HBO over allegations of child sexual abuse made in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, and more recently Freedman has acted as actor-director Justin Baldoni’s lawyer in his suit against Blake Lively after the actress accused him of sexual misconduct on the set of the film It Ends With Us.
In July 2024 The Deb’s producers sued Wilson for defamation. They alleged that the actress tried to seize writing credit from the musical’s creator and screenwriter, Hannah Reilly, despite the Australian Writers’ Guild ruling that Reilly should receive sole screenplay credit. It’s an especially ugly allegation given that The Deb emerged from Wilson’s scholarship programme at the Australian Theatre for Young People’s Rebel Theatre, named in her honour.
The producers also alleged that Wilson had tried to bully them into capitulating to her demands by threatening to badmouth them to her 11 million Instagram followers. After Wilson’s video went public, there were “grotesque lies” published on numerous websites that Ghost was a sex trafficker, the producers’ lawyer said, including one accusation that Ghost, whose parents are from Gibraltar and Trinidad, was the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”. The producers allege that this was part of a smear campaign orchestrated by Wilson, but the actress denied that in her 60 Minutes interview: “Obviously, I had zero to do with the websites. I don’t even know how to create a website.”
