Rebel Wilson has opened up on her defamation win against publisher Bauer Media, calling the media giant's appeal against the multi-million dollar payout "gross".
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"They're whining about the amount they're gonna have to pay me and trying to get it reduced - which is really gross considering I'm giving the money to charity," Wilson told Seven host Melissa Doyle on Sunday Night.
In September, Bauer were ordered to pay Wilson $4.56 million after a series of articles published in their titles including Women's Day and OK! were found to be defamatory against the star.
In October, they filed an appeal to challenge the "unprecedented" damages awarded, citing the effect on "press freedom".
In Seven's interview, timed to coincide with the Sydney premiere of Wilson's new movie Pitch Perfect 3, Wilson, 37, recalled how "17 years of hard work" was undone by Bauer's articles, which had accused her of lying about her name, age and upbringing.
"People were calling me a liar and a fake, and for someone like me who prides herself on being very candid and authentic, it was probably the most devastating thing they could've said about me," she told Doyle.
"These people just sat in their offices in Australia and said, 'She's super popular, we're gonna bring her down and write whatever we want about her.'
"I'm a human being who worked really, really hard to get to that point, and then to have it all taken away was just malicious and ugly," Wilson said, fighting back tears.
Wilson said her "lowest point" came after she was fired from two family films she'd already completed in the wake of the scandalous headlines.
A UNSW law graduate, she came to the realisation that "I just have to sue them", she said.
"Their strategy just seemed to be to bully and harass and sling any kind of mud they possibly could at me and my family for a month... It was relentless," Wilson said about Bauer's lawyers' tactics during the high-profile trial.
"These people have no idea how brutally hard it is to make it over there, especially someone like me who's not a glamour actress... I've done it all just through hard work and my own talent and imagination."
Sunday Night's interview was filmed in Mallorca where Wilson has been producing and filming a remake of 1988 comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, alongside Anne Hathaway.
Wilson, currently in Sydney for the premiere of Pitch Perfect 3 in Wednesday, will also be presenting at the ARIA Awards on Tuesday.
