Evan Rachel Wood was inspired to open up to Congress about being raped by her 'Westworld' character
The 30-year-old actress gave a harrowing speech in February, in which she told how she'd been forced to have sex by an abusive ex-boyfriend, and was later sexually assaulted again by someone else, in a bid have the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill to be passed in all 50 states as it was passed in just nine in 2016
17 April 2018
And Evan drew strength from her android alter ego, Dolores Abernathy, who has made her "believe" in herself, and even wore a locked containing a photo of the character during her testimony.
She said: "Playing this role completely changed my life - it transformed me.
"For me, 'Westworld' is about finding a power that you just didn't know or believe you had access to, or that you had been programmed to give up. Dolores changed that for me. She made me ask more questions. She made me believe in myself.
"She has become this kind of beacon for me, of a strength that I didn't know I had.
"And sometimes, when I doubt myself, I think: 'Dude, you're Dolores. You're good'. I really hope she does that for other people, too."
The 'Wrestler' actress - who has a four-year-old son with ex-husband Jamie Bell - admitted she was "terrified" about addressing the room because she'd told so few people about being attacked and her subsequent suicide attempts.
She told the Sunday Telegraph: "I'd really only told my story to about five people - I can count them on one hand - so to go from that to the world knowing, that was overwhelming.
"It was terrifying to think that everyone would know this about me and what people might think of that. But the fact that I was so afraid to tell my story, and so ashamed, just made me want to do it more."
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