Suvari recounts abuse

Actress reveals in new memoir that sexual assaults led her to drugs, despair

Mena Suvari was “lucky” to survive years of “repeated sexual abuse” that led her down a path to drugs and addiction.

The actress, who shot to fame in the 1999 movie American Beauty as a teenage cheerleader who is the object of obsession for a middle-aged man played by Kevin Spacey, has detailed the trauma she experienced before her breakthrough film in her new memoir The Great Peace: A Memoir.

Suvari told People magazine she was hiding the truth of the terrible trauma she was dealing with.

“I was living a double life,” the 42-year-old said. “Every time I would go on a set. Every time I was interviewed, I was acting the whole time. It was another role for me to play, that I was OK.”

In an excerpt from the book, set for release July 27, she writes, “Between the ages of 12 and 20, I was the victim of repeated sexual abuse.” Suvari details how a friend of one of her older brothers, whom she refers to as “KJ,” raped her; how she was coerced into a sexual relationship with a manager, whom she saw as a protector, at the age of 15; and was sexually and emotionally abused by a former boyfriend she names “Tyler,” whom she met just before she turned 17.

“Part of me died that day,” Suvari says of the rape by KJ. “He used me, had fun with me and then disposed of me. He called me a whore.”

She said: “I never got to have a healthy expression of (sex). My choice was lost. And that, compiled with already not feeling seen and heard, established a concept that I would have of myself. That that was my value.”

Soon after that, she began taking drugs to numb the pain.

“I turned to any form of self-medicating I could find, just to get by,” she said. “I was just trying to survive.”

Suvari eventually left Tyler and stopped using drugs — and with the help of therapy and supportive friends, began to regain her confidence.

In 2016, she met Mike Hope, now her husband, on a movie project. They married two years after meeting and have a son.

She said she hopes sharing her experiences will help others who have suffered.

“I hope I can help someone else see their value,” she said. “If I can lessen the pain for someone else, then I want to do it, because I didn't have that person.”