Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Rebel Wilson gambles $93,000 of own money while going for $250,000

Rebel Wilson gambled $93,000 of her own money that she had the right answer on Sunday’s episode of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire on ABC.

The 40-year-old Australian actress was raising money for the School of St. Jude in Arusha, Tanzania, for which she has served as an ambassador and once sponsored a student.

The school serves the ‘poorest and brightest’ students in the region, according to its literature.

Rebel faced a hairy moment when she reached the $250,000 question, which asked her what the first coins made by the US mint were rumored to have been created from.

The answers were: A) Alexander Hamilton’s gold inkwell, B) Ben Franklin’s pewter beer steins, C) Martha Washington’s silverware, and D) Thomas Jefferson’s copper sink.

Rebel had already won $125,000, but was only guaranteed to take home $32,000 of that if she picked the wrong answer, show host Jimmy Kimmel, 53, reminded her.

‘Get it wrong, you’ll lose $93,000,’ he cautioned.

The Pitch Perfect actress paused for a moment, then embraced the challenge.

‘This is a heavy US question,’ she admitted. ‘Unfortunately, because I didn’t go to school in America, I’m pretty sure I know who all the presidents were, but I don’t know the timeline.’

She remembered seeing the musical Hamilton, which connected two potential answers, as it said Martha Washington named her cat after Alexander Hamilton.

‘For some reason, I’m thinking Martha Washington’s silverware, but it’s a complete guess,’ Rebel mused aloud. ‘But maybe I’m gonna take the gamble, knowing that I could personally donate to the charity if I’m wrong.’

‘You would make up the $93,000 yourself?’ Jimmy asked, impressed.

‘I would,’ Rebel swore, to applause. ‘I’m that type of girl.’

‘Which is very nice,’ Jimmy replied. ‘Also, a little bit crazy.’

‘It’s a little bit crazy,’ Rebel acknowledged. ‘But I’d hate to lose it for my own. I’m just gonna go with answer C. And final answer. Knowing my charity can’t lose either way.’

‘You took a one-in-four shot at this,’ Jimmy said slowly.

‘Yeah,’ Rebel hedged. ‘Don’t they say just go with ”C” if you don’t know?’

‘You know what, they do say that,’ Jimmy replied, looking at her with renewed respect. ‘And you know what? Miraculously, they’re right.’

‘Aah!’ Rebel screamed, as she won a quarter of a million dollars. ‘They say that on exams!’

‘Why did you do that?’ Jimmy asked. ‘That was crazy!’

Rebel said she remembered that in Hamilton, they cited the year 1778, which helped guide her and using Hamilton’s gold coins seemed unlikely, compared to Martha’s silver.

‘Wow! Well, however you got to it, you got to it! And you got $250,000!’ Jimmy crowed.

He asked Rebel what kind of impact that money would have on the school.

Rebel recently donated $50,000 to the school to help fund a secondary campus for girls, and once gave $50,000 to buy it a school bus, so she figured it was like ‘five big school buses.’

‘Don’t do that again, you’re gonna give me a heart attack,’ Jimmy implored. 

Rebel had done well throughout the game, ably assisted by ‘the smartest person’ she knew, Jacob Andreou, VP and head of product at Snapchat.

After he helped her answer a $2,000 question about the mindfulness app Calm, Rebel briefly stumbled over a $4,000 question about which planet had rings on it.

‘I never listened about the planets in school,’ she said, guessing Saturn, as Jacob confirmed.

Rebel then sailed through a $8,000 question about the creation of Stonehenge, but asked Jimmy for help on a $16,000 question about the Academy Awards.

He had hosted the awards show twice, so she felt he might be able to tell her which foreign country produced directors that earned five of the last 10 Oscars.

‘I am a member of the Academy,’ Rebel noted. ‘This question should be easier for me…My gut’s saying Mexico because of the guy that did the one with the fish,’ i.e., The Shape of Water, by Guillermo del Toro. ‘Why am I going blank now that I’m here in this empty stadium?’

Jimmy said he didn’t know the answers beforehand, but once Rebel asked him for help he offered, ‘It’s definitely Mexico,’ adding, ‘I personally handed Guillermo del Toro the Oscar.’

For $32,000, Rebel and Jacob answered a question about who originated the term ‘chops’ (jazz musicians), then Rebel used the phone-a-friend to call pal Jacob Bush and ask who won the last five Hot Dog Eating Contests on Coney Island (answer: Joey Chestnut), winning $64,000.

She was again grateful to Snapchat’s Jacob when she had to answer a $125,000 question about what famed object had three four-pointed geometric shapes called hypocycloids on it.

Jacob helped her realize it was the Pittsburgh Steelers helmet by giving her a detailed definition of hypocycloids and their use of negative space.

‘See, this is why he’s my smartest friend,’ a stunned Rebel said.

The $250,000 question about the US Mint was next, and guessing the answer left her so euphoric that she was tempted to keep making risky choices.

For $500,000, Rebel needed to guess which country had ‘more than half’ of the 15 tallest buildings in the world.

She said she had once visited a skyscraper in the United Arab Emirates, and had clutched at its walls inside because she was so scared of heights.

The memorable experience left her wanting to guess the UAE, though she really wasn’t sure.

Rebel wondered aloud if she should ‘just be a crazy idiot again and take a guess,’ and she struggled with abstaining as she continued, ‘It’s a tough one. ‘Cause I am a risky person.’

‘Remember how happy we were three minutes ago?’ Jimmy asked her. ‘Do you want to tempt fate a second time?’

‘I do!’ Rebel said, smiling. ‘But because it’s for the charity… if it was me, I’d go riskier. But I think, Jimmy, I’m gonna walk away with the quarter of a million dollars. Final answer.’

Jimmy revealed that the answer was China and Rebel happily exited with $250,000. 

Amanda Peet, 48, star of USA’s Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, went next.

She was playing for Big Sunday, a Los Angeles-area group that helps teach locals to read, aids the homeless, and helps people impacted by coronavirus pay bills.

Amanda brought along Game Of Thrones co-creator Dan Weiss, her husband’s producing partner and a ‘surrogate husband’ to her, as her ‘smartest person.’

She quickly and correctly answered questions about human atoms, Disneyland gift shops, bodybuilding competitions, pig sounds, British redcoats, geckos, Marie Curie, groundhogs, Corona typewriters, and the US electoral college to win $32,000 before time was called.