Evan Rachel Wood reveals she was sexually assaulted twice

Actress Evan Rachel Wood has revealed that she has been sexually assaulted twice.

The star of ‘Westworld’ said that she was raped by a ‘significant other’, and also by a bar owner, she told Rolling Stone the day after the US presidential election.

“I’ve been raped. By a significant other while we were together. And on a separate occasion, by the owner of a bar,” she wrote.

“I don’t believe we live in a time where people can stay silent any longer. Not given the state our world is in with its blatant bigotry and sexism.”

She told the magazine’s reporter that she had suffered ‘physical, psychological sexual’ abuse, and then revealed the extent in a later email.

Wood came out as bisexual in 2011, saying that she knew she was attracted to women from an early age. However, she added that she feels that side her was ‘exploited’.

“It was always talked about like a phase or something stupid, or something you were doing for attention,” she said.

“You know, bisexuality is worthy of eye rolls. And I didn’t realise how damaging that was until I tried to have healthy relationships as an adult and realised that there was still all this shame and conditioning and stigma around my sexuality that was really affecting the way I related to people.

“I think I was taken advantage of because someone knew there was something about me that they could exploit.”

However, she adds that having her son with her ex-husband, British actor Jamie Bell, ‘changed everything’.

“It got me out of my own s***. I just couldn’t be what I was not,” she went on, saying that because she identified as bisexual, she believes was not as fully embraced by the LGBT community as she might have been.

“We are conditioned in certain ways, and it’s a journey to break that conditioning. And I think that’s been a lot of my journey, honestly.”

She also spoke about her character Delores from HBO sci-fi ‘Westworld’, who is abused in the show, and though it is not shown on camera, raped.

Addressing the criticism, she said: “The thing about ‘Westworld’ is we don’t actually show any act of rape.

“It’s the initial knee-jerk reaction – which I totally get because it is a problem and valid,” she said.

“You know, I was affected by things being written off as locker-room talk – I had a very, very visceral reaction to it. But the show is definitely a commentary on that.”

“I mean, your demons never fully leave. But when you’re using them to create something else, it almost gives them a purpose and feels like none of it was in vain. I think that’s how I make peace with it. ‘Westworld’? Good God. I left so much in that first season and never looked back.”

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