Madeline Brewer on Rising Above Online Bullies: 'I Didn't Expect Them to Call Me Ugly Because I'm Not' (Exclusive)
The Handmaid's Tale actress says some comments from online trolls "triggered" her
But she shares how she found the strength to rise above hurtful messagesOnline trolls may come with the territory of being an actor, but Madeline Brewer isn't letting it get her down.
In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the actress, 33, opens up about the unexpected criticism she's received on her physical appearance after starring as Bronte aka Louise Flannery in the final season of You.
When asked if she was surprised to see how she was received by the fan base, Brewer admits, "A little bit. I'll be honest, I didn't expect people to like Brontë, but I didn't expect them to call me ugly, because I'm not."
"I get that I'm not everybody's cup of tea, but I'm not ugly," she says. "I had thought that the largest fan base of this show is women, young women, and I never anticipated the amount of misogyny to be fired at me."
Brewer joined the final season of the cultural juggernaut, Netflix's You, as Bronte, the 'final girl' to serial killer Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley).
As a "huge fan" of the show, she says she was "excited to be a part of that world." But she didn't anticipate the fans' reaction.
"I think that when people are confronted with that misogyny and that deconstruction of their hero, it makes them upset," Brewer says of Joe's fate. "Especially pisses them off that it was a woman. It was a woman to do it. And it was also a new woman, and a woman that they might not find attractive."
"So all of that to deal with, they can't help but get on their cell phones and comment on my pictures and go, 'Oh, you're so ugly. You look like a goblin,'" she continues. "And I'm like, 'Girl, lighten up. I'm not ugly.'"
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Brewer says she was bullied as a child, and comments suggesting she needed plastic surgery 'triggered' her.
'I feel very grateful that this didn't happen at an earlier time in my life. If this had happened when I was 25, I would have crumbled because I wasn't in therapy yet," she says. "Being in my 30s, I don't care. I knew I could handle it.'
The Handmaid's Tale star is aware criticism is 'par for the course' of being an actor, and 'now I don't give a f---,' she says. 'As long as they're doing it to me and not somebody who can't handle it, bring it on."
Brewer says when she needs some extra reassurance, she looks to her fiancé, cinematographer Jack Thompson-Roylance.
"He just thinks the sun shines out of my butt, and he thinks that I'm the most beautiful woman in the whole world," she says with a smile. "He's actually the only opinion that really matters to me."
The two are gearing up for a July wedding in England. As a 'perfectionist,' Brewer wants everything to go smoothly to pull off her vision of 'Bridgerton by day and Saltburn at night.'
But she has no nerves when it comes to saying 'I do.' 'That's my dude,' she says. 'It's going to be fun.'
You is streaming now on Netflix.
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