Rebel Wilson’s abysmal pay for early Hollywood roles

REBEL Wilson may have scored $4.5m in court, but the case revealed how little she made when she went to Hollywood.

Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas in the 2011 film Bridesmaids.

REBEL Wilson is cheering after winning a record $4.5 million in defamation damages, but the judgment has also exposed startling detail about just how little she was paid when she first made the trip to Hollywood.

The Australian actor was awarded the highest defamation payout in the country’s history yesterday after she successfully sued Bauer Media in the Victorian Supreme Court for a series of articles that painted her as a serial liar.

“Today was the end of a long and hard court battle against Bauer Media who viciously tried to take me down with a series of false articles,” Wilson, 37, tweeted after the judgment.

Rebel Wilson has scored $4.5 million in damages from Bauer Media. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

But buried deep in Justice John Dixon’s 136-page judgment is surprising evidence about the abysmal level of pay the Aussies funny woman received in her early Hollywood roles.

After making a name for herself in TV and theatre in Australia, Wilson moved to Los Angeles in late 2009.

Her breakout role came in mid-2010 when played Kristen Wiig’s nightmare roommate in the monster hit Bridesmaids — for which she was paid a measly $US3000 ($A3759).

Rebel Wilson was paid only $3000 for her scene-stealing role as Brynn in Bridesmaids.

While her role was admittedly small and her screen time minimal, the movie went on to gross $288.4 million at the box office and was nominated for two Oscars.

You might think that Wilson went on to make millions for each of her subsequent big screen roles, but the judge’s findings show that was far from the case. This is how much she made for her next movie appearances:

● Pitch Perfect: $US165,000 ($A206,719)

●  Ice Age: Continental Drift: $US70,000 ($A87,699)

●  What to Expect When You’re Expecting: $US75,000 ($A93,963)

●  Bachelorette: $US45,000 ($A56,378)

●  Struck By Lightning: $US20,000 ($A25,056)

● Small Apartments: $US5000 ($A6264)

Rebel Wilson was paid about the same money to appear on The Big Music Quiz, alongside Bini Irwin and Ada Nicodemou, as she was to play Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect.

Compare these figures to the $A200,000 she was paid to appear in one episode of the short-lived Channel 7 game show The Big Music Quiz last year.

While the pay she made for these movie roles may seem small by Hollywood standards, she did go on to score big pay packets for her own sit com Super Fun Night in 2013-14 (about $US2 million) and the Pitch Perfect sequel in 2015 ($US4.1 million).

And she is set to be paid between $US5 million and $US6 million ($A6.3 million-$A7.5 million) for Pitch Perfect 3, due for release in December.

Rebel Wilson, here with Anna Kendrick, will make big bucks for Pitch Perfect 3.

Add to that her $4.5 million defamation payout from Bauer, and Wilson is now sitting pretty.

Justice Dixon said substantial damages were required to “vindicate” Wilson after her reputation as an “actor of integrity was wrongly damaged” in the articles published in Woman’s Day, The Australian Women’s Weekly, New Weekly and OK!

Wilson said on Twitter that the case “wasn’t about the money”.

Rebel Wilson says the Bauer magazine articles cost her roles in Hollywood films. Picture: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

“I’m looking forward to helping out some great Australian charities and supporting the Oz film industry with the damages I’ve received,” she tweeted.

“Also looking forward to getting back to my career and entertaining everyone!”

Her lawyer Richard Leder said outside court the damages were about four times higher than the previous Australian record for a defamation case.

Rebel Wilson’s lawyer Richard Leader speaks to the media outside the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne after winning a record payout. Picture: AAP Image/Stefan Postles

Bauer Media had branded that damage claim “extraordinarily large” and made on the “most tenuous of basis”.

Bauer lawyer Georgina Schoff told the judge that Wilson had failed to prove the articles caused her financial losses.

Bauer failed to prove the articles published in 2015 were substantially true or that they were unlikely to harm her career.

Vindicated … Rebel Wilson. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The jury found Bauer had said Wilson lied about her age, claiming to be six years younger, and had falsely claimed to have been named Rebel at birth.

They also found Bauer had said Wilson lied about having a hallucination about winning an Academy Award while sick with malaria, about her parents being dog trainers, about being related to US entertainment entrepreneur Walt Disney and about being raised in a “ghetto” area of Sydney.

Wilson blamed the articles for film contracts being terminated.

Rebel Wilson in Pitch Perfect 2.

— with AP