Mena Suvari, best known for her work in Oscar-nominated blockbuster, American Beauty, has published a memoir highlighting a long history of sexual abuse, pressure, and humiliation in Hollywood. A Great Peace: A Memoir details the unacceptable price that many actors have paid to make it to the silver screen and reveals a personal encounter with Kevin Spacey the actor had kept quiet all these years. Suvari details that, at the age of 19 and while filming American Beauty, she was taken by Spacey to a room with a bed. “We laid next to each other, me facing toward him while he held me lightly. Lying there with Kevin was strange and eerie but also calm and peaceful…. I wasn’t sure if Kevin was interested in me or not… I didn’t know how far he was going to take it or how I was going to react if he did go there. But he didn’t.” Suvari has never spoken about the sexual assault allegations against Spacey, but she did tell People that when those allegations surfaced, she thought about the moment they had spent together.
Suvari’s Story is All Too Common
Suvari’s life story is sadly part of a larger tragedy – one in which some 94% of all women in Hollywood experience sexual harassment or assault – as found in a recent survey conducted by USA Today alongside the Creative Coalition, Women in Film and Television, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Owing to the #MeToo movement, victims of abuse are much more likely to see sexual abuse lawyers to take a stand against their aggressors. In July 2021, actor James Franco agreed to pay over $2 million to settle a sexual misconduct case filed by numerous ex-students in a class-action suit. In this case, the plaintiffs alleged that they and their classmates were coerced into filming sexual acts by Franco and his team. Other recent cases include those brought against Harvey Weinstein, Jeremey Piven, and Bill Cosby (who was released from prison when Pennsylvania’s highest court deemed his due process rights to have been violated).
A Youth Marked by Abuse
In her book, Suvari speaks of various experiences involving abuse – including the time when, at the age of 12, she was raped by a 16-year-old. At 16, she had sex with her manager, highlighting her vulnerability and need for affection. By the age of 17, she was in a full-fledged relationship with a 26-year-old lighting engineer who subjected her to verbal abuse and non-consensual sexual acts. Mediatic pressure, meanwhile, propelled her to opt for a breast augmentation procedure she thought would give her confidence. She says that she turned to drugs to cope with the distress. Suvai dabbled in crystal meth, acid, ecstasy, marijuana, alcohol, and more.
Mena Suvari’s recently published memoir, A Great Peace: a Memoir is crucial reading for young actors seeking to make it in Hollywood. The #MeToo movement has done plenty to highlight the degree of sexual abuse and misconduct in Hollywood but young actors still have a steep hill to climb if they wish to make it big. This is because mediatic pressure often seeks a level of perfection that can be impossible to achieve.
