Mena Suvari rose to fame as an exceptionally talented model and actress, but no one could have imagined how much she suffered all throughout her childhood and while she was building her amazing career.With the release of her memoir, The Great Place, she told the whole world about all the horrifying things she was put through, mostly by older men who manipulated and coerced her until they broke her spirit. But not forever. No, she was strong enough to reach out for help and heal.
The Horrifying Details Of Mena Suvari's Childhood
The fact that Mena Suvari has managed to embark on a path of healing and build a successful career despite everything she has gone through. She was very young when she started working as a model and was left all alone.
Every adult in her life at the time failed her, one way or the other, and according to her memoir, eventually, she began to believe the horrible way men in her life were treating her was acceptable.
When she was 12 years old, Mena says she was assaulted by a friend of her older brother's, who then told the whole school to humiliate her. She decided to deny it ever happened because everyone was blaming her, and Mena describes that moment as a turning point in her development.
"That sucked the life out of me. I think that was just excessive confirmation that no one was going to save me, no one was going to do anything for me," she explained.
Not even doctors helped her, because when she had to go to the hospital due to the assault, she was put on contraceptives and no one gave her any form of support.
Mena's Life Got Harder When She Started Working
Mena Suvari was 12 when she was signed by a modeling agency, and soon after that, she was also beginning her acting career. And once again, she was abandoned to her own fate.
Suvari moved to Los Angeles to begin her professional life, something no pre-teen is ever ready for.
One thing she remembers specifically is how "everyone was raving about how I looked 18. But I was 12. What was communicated to me was that I was an adult, therefore I can act like an adult," she explained.
Throughout Mena's teenage years, adult men coerced her into inappropriate relationships, but she had learned from previous experiences that people didn't have her back.
Plus, the way she had been treated had twisted her view of what was and wasn't right. "I didn’t have anyone telling me, 'That’s not right, that person shouldn’t be doing that with you'," she said.
Also, the fact that she was naturally smart and talented meant that everyone saw her as successful in school and in her work, so no one paid attention to how devastated the girl was.
With no way to deal with the horrifying events in her life and no support from anyone in her life (her mother had walked out and her relationship with her father was tense), Mena turned to drugs to escape from what was happening to her.
In her late teens, she found herself in an abusive relationship with an older man who forced her into harrowing acts, and that only fueled her addiction. To this day she admits staying sober is a work in progress.
Why Mena Mentions Kevin Spacey In Her Book
It's no secret that Kevin Spacey has been involved in several sexual abuse scandals, so when Mena mentioned him in her memoir, it caused waves.
In the book, she describes how, during a scene, Spacey took her "into a small room with a bed," and held her "lightly" while they were both laying down. She says, though, that she didn't share that to speak against the actor, but to explain how she had gotten used to that kind of treatment.
"I used that story and that moment with Kevin simply to show that it was just another moment where me as a young woman ended up in a room with a man older than me -- in a situation like that, a somewhat intimate, situation, and that was OK with me. That was just commonplace. It was just understood."
This story is just an example of how cathartic and healing writing this book was, even if it was painful.
"I think the biggest thing is that, for me, I felt like I wasn’t allowed to consider a lot of these moments as abuse or trauma, because I always excused it. That’s a big part of survival – I had to learn how a lot of things served me then, and they don’t have to serve me any more," she said.
Mena's incredible resilience is a huge inspiration to victims everywhere, and anyone in a similar situation should know that help is available — they just need to speak up.