--- title: Evan Rachel Wood Details Rape and Torture to Congress description: Evan Rachel Wood is speaking out about her experiences with sexual assault to advocate for increased legal protections for abuse survivors. canonical: https://time.com/5179869/evan-rachel-wood-rape-congress-testimony/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-28T22:02:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:01.482Z og:title: Evan Rachel Wood Details Her Rape and Torture in Testimony og:description: "I truly felt like I could die" og:url: https://time.com/5179869/evan-rachel-wood-rape-congress-testimony/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc24f9a9a997fe7db/6989292e7cdbac7ba9d5c206/evan-rachel-wood-sexual-assault.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: 2017-Emmys-Evan-Rachel-Wood og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Evan Rachel Wood Details Her Rape and Torture in Testimony twitter:description: "I truly felt like I could die" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc24f9a9a997fe7db/6989292e7cdbac7ba9d5c206/evan-rachel-wood-sexual-assault.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Truly Felt Like I Could Die.' 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 28, 2018 10:02 PM UTC  Evan Rachel Wood arrives at the Emmys on September 17, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Evan Rachel Wood arrives at the Emmys on September 17, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 28, 2018 10:02 PM UTC [Evan Rachel Wood](http://time.com/4869992/evan-rachel-wood-westworld-comic-con/) is speaking out about her personal experiences with [sexual assault](http://time.com/5138860/sexual-assault-west-point/) in a push for increased legal protections for [abuse survivors](http://time.com/5112695/become-sexual-assault-advocate/). The _Westworld_ star delivered a chilling testimony before Congress on Wednesday in which she detailed being raped, tortured and mentally abused by a former boyfriend in order to advocate for implementing the [Sexual Assault Survivor’s Bill of Rights Act](http://time.com/4346255/sexual-assault-survivors-rights-act-2/) in all 50 states “It started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gas-lighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body,” she told a House Judiciary Subcommittee, according to [_People_](http://people.com/movies/evan-rachel-wood-details-her-experience-of-rape-and-torture-in-harrowing-testimony-to-congress/). “And the worst part: Sick rituals of binding me up by my hands and feet to be mentally and physically tortured until my abuser felt I had proven my love for them.” Wood continued by explaining how this trauma had affected her psychologically. “While I was tied up and being beaten and told unspeakable things, I truly felt like I could die,” she said. “Not just because my abuser said to me, ‘I could kill you right now,’ but because in that moment I felt like I left my body and I was too afraid to run.” The 30-year-old actor went on to say that she had also been raped by a different abuser later in life. “Because of this abuse, when I was pushed onto the floor of a locked storage closet by another attacker, after hours at a bar, my body instinctively knew what to do: Disappear, go numb, make it go away,” Wood said. “Being abused and raped previously made it easier for me to be raped again, not the other way around.” The Sexual Assault Survivor’s Bill of Rights Act ensures that survivors are given free rape kit tests after their assault and then informed of the results and notified 60 days prior to the destruction of the kit, with the option to preserve all evidence through the statute of limitations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5179869/evan-rachel-wood-rape-congress-testimony/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5179869/evan-rachel-wood-rape-congress-testimony/"},"headline":"'I Truly Felt Like I Could Die.' 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