Mena Suvari found fame in American Beauty at the age of 19. She tells Helena de Bertodano about self-medicating with drugs, exploitative relationships and an ‘odd’ incident on set with Kevin Spacey. thetimes.co.uk/article/mena-s…
For decades, Suvari played the role of the girl with the gilded lifestyle. “That was absolutely painful, to be in an interview and I couldn’t be myself,” she says.
“‘What was American Pie like, it must have been so great?’ I couldn’t say, ‘I’m being severely, severely abused.’”
📸 As Heather in American Pie
📸 As Heather in American Pie
In unflinching detail, her memoir describes how she was raped by an older boy at the age of 12, tried to self-medicate with drugs and even wrote a suicide note.
Three years ago she was going through her belongings in the garage when she found the suicide note that she had written in her late teens. “Take care,” read the note, adorned with an angel sticker. “I’ll see you again someday.” It triggered a flood of memories.
“It took me 20 years to find that letter,” she says. “But that was the day I saw myself again and began this process of healing.”
By that point the #MeToo movement was also in full swing. “That was very empowering,” she says.
By that point the #MeToo movement was also in full swing. “That was very empowering,” she says.
Suvari recalls exploitative relationships as her career flourished.
“How was I now with my manager in his apartment, alone at 16 years old, getting high, with him f***ing me afterward, but yet also asking, ‘Do you know your lines?’ Was this what Hollywood was? Was this my life?” she asks.
Read the full interview and an extract from her memoir: thetimes.co.uk/article/mena-s…
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