Meet our July cover star Rebel Wilson (and find out what happened when she took us on a hike)

Rebel quite literally put writer Mickey Rapkin through his paces...

Rebel Wilson proved to be both great company and an excellent fitness coach when she took writer Mickey Rapkin on an energetic hike through Griffith Park in LA for Marie Claire's July issue cover story.

Mickey, who is also the author of Pitch Perfect (the book transformed into the movie that made Rebel a star), talked to Rebel about fame, her childhood, her strict no nudity clause and her love of new Absolutely Fabulous co-star Jennifer Saunders. 'As a teenager I'd put Ab Fab on instead of working' she said, 'Jennifer Saunders was the first woman I ever saw on TV who wrote and performed her own material.'

Revealing she was cripplingly shy as a child, Rebel told Mickey that her mother dropped her off at acting classes to help her deal with her shyness. 'I was so unusually shy, bordering on a social disorder. So my mum - one day she drives me to this community acting class. I was holding on to the car door and crying. She had to peel me off the car. She's like, "I'll pick you up in two hours," And she left me.'

Rebel Wilson, photographed by Alexei Hay

She also discussed her nudity rules when she's on camera. '[Filming Grimsby] They wanted full-frontal nudity. We write in the contract, specifically, "No nudity". They got in another girl - this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa - to be a nude double. And they got her to do all this stuff. Sacha would go, "See, she looks good." I'm like, I'm not doing it. I don't care what you say.' Though she did reveal she could be persuaded for a more serious movie. 'you want to know that the people [behind the camera] have a certain sensibility and decency. And a lot of times in comedy they're not those people.'

'I'm very independent' Rebel said when asked about her relationship status, 'to the point where I'm too independent. If you're a successful woman you want to find the right person, but you don't necessarily need them. I don't know whether that sounds weird, but there's a whole crop of young women who are in that situation now. I don't want to settle for someone if they're not right but, because I get to do such awesome fun stuff all the time, I really want to share that with somebody. We'll see. I'm definitely on the look out. I'm trying to put it out there, but I don't know whether the right person is in Hollywood - you only meet actors or musicians here.'

And speaking of Hollywood, she's also not particularly fussed by the Tinseltown pressure to look perfect either. 'I've always tried to use my brain to get places,' she said. 'There's so many glamorous people in Hollywood I just never want to compete with that... even the men get their skin lasered.'

Read the full interview in the July issue of Marie Claire, out this Thursday, and pick up a free Elemis Hydra-Boost Cream worth £14