Gabrielle Union is a 50-year-old American actress best known for her roles in Bring It On(2000), The Brothers (2001), Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Daddy’s Little Girls (2007), Think Like a Man (2012) and Think Like a Man Too (2014). She got into acting when she was still a student at UCLA(University of Carlifonia, Los Angeles). She had an internship at a modelling agency in LA. Union believed this internship would be a simple way to earn some additional college credits. She had no idea that the customers were eyeing her up. She was offered to work for the agency as a client when the internship was over. Union modeled until her agency discovered that she could actually act. She agreed to start acting because she felt it would be a perfect way to pay off her mountain of student loan debts. Without any headshots, she got hired for her first audition/job on Saved by the Bell (1989). After the critical and financial success of her debut, she went on to have small but substantial film roles and guest-starred on several hit TV shows, before landing the role of “Dr. Courtney Ellis”, on CBS’ short-lived medical drama City of Angels (2000).
Union has always played parts that are opinionated and strong-willed, many would say it’s because of the trauma she went through in her last year as a teenager. Either ways, she’s done so again in her role as a high school principal in the hit TV series Truth Be Told. In an interview with CBS morning’s co-hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson, Gabrielle Union talks about said role and how it brought back a lot of memories surrounding her rape at 19. She shares the effects this sexual assault has had on her for over 32 years. She first shared this story in her memoir, “We’re Going to Need More Wine.”
Excerpt from We’re Going To Need More Wine
“When I was 19, I got a job at Payless shoes with some friends. It was easy work. You didn’t actually have to help anyone—that was the beauty of it. The customers help themselves and you ring them up, so basically you can f-ck around all day and get paid.
Someone was robbing Payless stores that summer, but we didn’t know a thing about it. He was a former employee, black. The management and police had identified him because he’d robbed the store where he’d worked. They had a description, even his driver’s license information. Mind you, Payless sent a storewide alert to tell you how to display new sandals, so they definitely had the ability to warn us about this guy. And yet: They didn’t.
When the man first walked in, I was straightening a display of fake Timberlands. He came up behind me and asked about the boots. I took one look at him and wanted to run, but I didn’t. I was aware of how my coworkers and the people in our mostly white community viewed black people, so my racial solidarity and “good home training” as a “polite” woman kicked in.
At 8:45 I started vacuuming. We weren’t supposed to vacuum until the store closed at nine, but this was a trick staffers did to tell customers that it was time to get the f-ck out. The vacuum was loud, but I still heard Goth Girl scream for me to come to the register.
Something in her voice told me to run; again, I didn’t. I walked to the front, where the man was holding a gun on her. As Goth Girl gave him the money, he was incredulous that there was only a couple of hundreds in the register. As a former employee, he knew there should be more.
“I already did the drop,” Goth said, referring to walking the pouch of money to the nearby bank. It was another way we cut corners to clock out early. She sounded more annoyed than frightened.
The man marched us into the storeroom, pressing his gun into my back. He said, “Take off your clothes.”
Goth was still pissed. “I’m not taking my clothes off.”
Mind you, I was naked in a second. It never occurred to me to say no.
He crammed us both into the tiny bathroom and then, seconds later, ordered me to come out. He threw me to the ground and was suddenly on me, spreading my legs as he kept the gun on my head. As he raped me, I began to hover over myself. I could see the whole room. I looked at that poor crying girl and thought, Things like this happen to bad people. Things like this don’t happen to people like me.
He turned me over to go for it doggy style. He put the gun down, placing it right next to me. “Can you hand me the gun?” He said it casually as he ripped into me, like he was asking for the salt.
I grabbed that mother-f-cking gun, and I shot at him. I can go back to that moment right now. The sound of the gunshot, every muscle in my body tensed, the smell of gunpowder. Then the realization that I missed. That I was probably going to die very soon.
He tried to yank the gun out of my fist. He bashed my face as he turned the gun toward me with his other hand. My finger was wedged between the trigger and the base—it felt like he was going to rip my finger off—but I wouldn’t let go. I kept screaming for Goth to come out and help me. She didn’t come out.
Finally, he ripped the gun out of my hand. He pointed the barrel at my head and stood over me. “Now I’m gonna have to kill you, bitch.” I looked down, my face a mess of blood and tears. I clutched a gold-plated chain necklace my boyfriend Alex had given me. He had already taken everything else from me. This necklace was all I had to offer for my life. “You can have this,” I sputtered. “Take it. It’s worth more than the money you got. Take it.”
He didn’t take the necklace. As quickly as it all happened, he was calm. And again, he said, very casually. “How do I get out of here?” I pointed to the back exit, and he went out and I was alone. I never saw him again.”
Union has been discussing her assault for many years now. She has put in a lot of effort to help young ladies who have experienced what she did, feel less alone. She has made an effort to let them know that their story is not over. Not even close. This isn’t the first time her story has been discussed, but it was brought up again in this interview because the character she plays inTruth Be Told season 3, a show about a true crime podcaster who teams up with a high school principal to bring awareness to the missing Black girls in the community, gave such intense flashbacks she “cried herself to sleep every night after filming”. She plays the principal who helps the series protagonist Poppy(the true crime podcaster) try to find missing young black girls. Union admitted that when Poppy (Octavia Spencer) originally contacted her about the part, she was uneasy. She didn’t want to be forced to relive the pain she had gone through, but in the end, the urge to spread the message the show was trying to spread won out. Union thought it was worthwhile since the show would demonstrate how little the media values the lives of young black women. She didn’t anticipate the impact the show would have on her, though.
As previously mentioned, Union had some reservations about taking on the role. She was terrified because she was aware of what might occur. She had no clue that 32 years later she would remember her abuse in such stark detail. For so long her mind had protected her from most of the incident but during the filming for this show, it started coming back to her. She remembered the feel of his skin on hers, his smell, EVERYTHING. It was like reliving a nightmare. Union experienced something traumatic, something no one should EVER have to experience and she fought to heal from that, but as most people know, healing has never and will never be a one-time thing. It is forever a process. Gabrielle shared what some people already know, what most people grow to learn; wounds may heal but more often than not it leaves a scar behind. From that moment, up until now and maybe for the rest of her life Gabrielle Union will carry a piece of that day with her.
However, the point Union tried to make with this role, this interview, her memoir and every activist move she’s ever made for young girls and women like her is that yes, you’ll scar but that is not the end. For no reason should that be your end. You get live again, you get to laugh again, you get to feel like more than the dirt you may be feeling right now. Look at her and let her be the inspiration you might need. Her rape wasn’t her end, your trauma doesn’t have to be yours.