The Tropic Thunder star launched legal action against the editors of now-defunct U.K. tabloid the News of the World over claims his voice mail messages were improperly accessed.
The publication, which was run by embattled mogul Rupert Murdoch, closed in July (11) after 168 years in print, but Coogan refuses to let those responsible for hacking off the hook.
He tells Britain’s Guardian newspaper, “Because I’m a more populist person and I reach a more generalised audience that goes beyond broadsheets I can help keep it in the popular imagination and I will do everything in my power to keep it in the popular imagination.”
The comic also reveals he has snubbed an offer from lawyers for News Group, the subsidiary that owned News of the World, to settle the case. He estimates the battle has cost him more than $160,000 (£100,000) so far.
He adds, “It (the settlement) wouldn’t have covered the costs but it would have taken the sting out of what I’d spent.”
