Mena Suvari agonised over writing her tell-all memoir.
Mena Suvari has opened up about her memoir
The 42-year-old actress tells a heartbreaking coming-of-age story in 'The Great Peace', but Mena admits she was hesitant about being so open and honest in her book.
Mena explaned: "Initially, I felt so compelled to share it. I just had to express myself.
"It had its own process. Over the years, I had my diary and I had this book of poetry, this binder that I'd titled 'The Great Peace' from the past. It travelled with me for so long and I finally just looked into it again and at that moment - a couple of years ago - I initially just wanted to publish the poetry book. I felt like I could share enough but not all of it."
The actress discusses all sorts of experiences in her memoir, including fame, abusive relationships and drug use.
And Mena admits that she took some persuading before she actually decided to publish the tell-all book.
She told the 'Dear Chelsea' podcast: "[My friends] encouraged me to tell all of it. At that moment, I went back and sat with myself and ... you know, I felt ready."
Mena admits that being so open about her struggles has been a "very weird" experience.
But she also believes there's something "very beautiful" about the process.
The 'American Beauty' star said: "Going into the process of talking about it, that's very weird. I kind of refer to it as therapy with the world, you know? It's strange. I'm kind of living my life in front of everyone. That's very odd to me.
"But there's also something very beautiful and there's so many things that have come out of this. This work isn't done for me. I'm still very actively in therapy - I love my therapist."
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