Mena Suvari Admits She ‘Identified’ With Her ‘American Beauty’ Character After Suffering Years Of Abuse And Being Told To Be ‘Sexually Attractive’
etcanada.comMena Suvari speaks candidly about being abused and how that led to her relating to her “American Beauty” character in a new interview with the Guardian.
Suvari, who played teenager Angela Hayes in the 1999 film, explains how she suffered years of sexual abuse, starting when she was raped at age 12 by her brother’s older friend.
She was also taught to look “sexy” from a very early age in her acting and modelling career, telling the paper how she was just 12, but looked 18, so therefore was treated like an adult.
Suvari says she thinks older men used her, including a twentysomething photographer who took pictures of her nude, alone at his home, when she was 15. READ MORE: Mena Suvari Explains Writing About Kevin Spacey In New Book One of her business advisers, who was in his mid-30s, also started having sex with her when she was 16, with Suvari telling the publication: “I didn’t have anyone telling me, ‘That’s not right, that person shouldn’t be doing that with you.’” She also had an abusive relationship with a lighting technician, who encouraged her to have threesomes and have rough sexual experiences that she didn’t want.
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