Evan Rachel Wood, de ster van de nieuwe hitserie Westworld, doet in een openhartig interview met Rolling Stone een heftige onthulling over haar verleden. Ze vertelt aan het tijdschrift dat ze vroeger twee keer verkracht is: één keer bij een partner en één keer bij een eigenaar van een bar.

Ze deed de onthulling in een krachtige e-mail die ze schreef aan Rolling Stone, een dag nadat Donald Trump werd verkozen als president van Amerika. Ze laat daarin weten:

'I don't believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer. I am still standing. I am alive. I am happy. I am strong. But I am still not ok. I think it's important for people to know that, for survivors to own that, and that the pressure to just get over it already, should be lifted.'

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Lees hieronder haar hele brief:

I started questioning my reasons for staying vague about my experiences as a girl growing up in America. I think, like a lot of women, I had the urge to not make it a sob story, to not make it about me.

I didn't have to confirm what happened, what mattered is that shit happened.

Bad. Shit.

That still affects me to this day.

I think deep down, I also didn't want to be accused of doing it for attention, or told it wasn't a big deal, or "that's not really rape."

I will not be ashamed. I will also not project some false idea of being completely over it because "I am so strong." I don't believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer.

I certainly can't.

Not given the state our world is in with its blatant bigotry and sexism. It should be talked about because it's swept under the rug as nothing and I will not accept this as 'normal'. It's a serious problem.

I am still standing. I am alive. I am happy. I am strong. But I am still not ok.

I think it's important for people to know that, for survivors to own that, and that the pressure to just get over it already, should be lifted.

It will remind people of the damage that has been done and how the trauma of a few minutes can turn into a lifetime of fighting for yourself. It's not that you can't get over it, it's just that you are never the same, or maybe I just haven't gotten there yet.

So to answer your blunt question bluntly, yes. I have been raped. By a significant other while we were together, and on a separate occasion, by the owner of a bar.

The first time I was unsure that if it was done by a partner it was still in fact rape, until too late.

Also who would believe me.

And the second time, I thought it was my fault and that I should have fought back more, but I was scared. This was many many years ago and I of course know now neither one was my fault and neither one was ok.

This was all before I tried to commit suicide [at 22] and I am sure was one of the many factors. There you have it.

De 29-jarige actrice is twee keer getrouwd geweest. Met Marilyn Manson, met wie ze van 2007 tot 2010 samen was, en met acteur Jamie Bell (van 2012 - 2014), met wie ze samen een zoontje heeft.

Aan Rolling Stone laat Evan Rachel Wood nog weten over haar zelfmoord:

'It was, weirdly, the best-worst thing that ever happened to me. 'Cause it did not work.'