“Westworld” star Evan Rachel Wood gave an emotional testimony Tuesday on Capitol Hill, telling lawmakers about two separate instances when she was raped and tortured.
“I thought I was the only human who experienced this, and I carried so much guilt and confusion about my response to the abuse,” Wood said. “I accepted my powerlessness, and I felt I deserved it somehow.”
Wood was joined by several other women, who shared their stories about sexual assault during a hearing about the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations.
Woods and others are hoping to get the bill, which was passed in 2016, will be implemented on a state level.
“I want Congress to understand that sexual assault and rape have lasting effects on your health and well being,” Wood told CNN. “It’s the trauma that continues after the act itself that is overwhelming. Survivors shouldn’t also be forced to jump through hurdles to hold their perpetrators accountable.”
Wood told lawmakers that after she was assaulted she was diagnosed with PTSD and, at one point, attempted suicide.
“I hope we can find a way to teach our women to not go inward and make everything their fault. … I think we can teach men to express things better and not take things out on other people,” Wood said. “It’s going to take a shift of consciousness.”
In conjunction with the hearing, Wood also collaborated with “Funny or Die” on a release of a new PSA titled “Guess Who: #MeToo Edition.”
The video features Wood along with Kelly Marie Tran and Da’Vine Joy Randolph with narration from Tatiana Maslany.
You can watch the Funny or Die video below.