Emotional Rebel Wilson opens up on defamation lawsuit

Actor Rebel Wilson, who won a defamation case earlier this year, has explained how hard it was to have her reputation questioned after being falsely accused of being a serial liar.

In an interview with a leading entertainment channel, the Pitch Perfect star described the shock and hurt of being portrayed as a liar and a fraud in a series of magazine articles that she said almost destroyed her career just as it was taking off.

“I went from this girl who has just worked her absolute a** off to get where she was to just being torn down in a second, in a 24-hour period,” said Wilson. “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 just probably the most devastating thing they could have said to me.”

Wilson also shared that she did not lie about her age, but rather chose to not reveal it, and also did not lie about her name, saying she legally adopted the family nickname Rebel in 2002.

“It’s very, very stressful when you become the centre of a scandal. And it was so salacious. People were like, ‘She’s fabricating her own life to make it,’” recalled Wilson.

At the time, Wilson had just appeared in Pitch Perfect, a film about a college a cappella group that shot to number one at the box office.

PHOTO: NEIL HALL/REUTERS Australian actor Rebel Wilson was accused of telling lies about her life