Madeline Brewer was stunned when 'You' fans branded her "ugly".

The 33-year-old actress - who portrayed Louise Flannery aka Bronte in the fifth and final season of the Netflix thriller series - has hit out at the "amount of misogyny" she experienced when she played the love interest of lead character Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley).

She told People magazine: "I'll be honest, I didn't expect people to like Bronte, 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.

"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."

However, Madeline is thankful she was older when she received the cruel insults because she's been through therapy after being bullied as a child and was able to brush off the slurs, even though they "triggered" her.

She said: "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.

"Being in my 30s, I don't care. I knew I could handle it."

Madeline believes devoted fans of 'You' targeted her because they were upset at her character's role in Joe's downfall.

She said: "I think that when people are confronted with that misogyny and that deconstruction of their hero, it makes them upset.

"[It] especially p***** 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.'

"And I'm like, 'Girl, lighten up. I'm not ugly.'"

Madeline is engaged to cinematographer Jack Thompson-Roylance, and he can always give her a confidence boost if the trolls do get her down.

She said: "He just thinks the sun shines out of my butt, and he thinks that I'm the most beautiful woman in the whole world.

"He's actually the only opinion that really matters to me."