Mena Suvari almost quit Hollywood amid pressures of fame

Washington: Mena Suvari has revealed that she almost walked away from Hollywood forever when she became disillusioned with the movie industry after the huge success of ‘American Beauty’.

The blonde star shot to fame in Sam Mendes’ multi-Oscar winning 1999 drama, and was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as vain Angela Hayes. She was hailed as one of Hollywood’s hottest properties following her turn in the film, but Suvari has revealed she nearly walked away from making movies because she felt like a “pawn”. “I did have to grow up faster because I suddenly had to learn a lot about the business and was feeling pressure I hadn’t felt before,” a website has quoted her as telling a magazine. “I remember feeling very rebellious around 2000, after the film came out. Before then I’d had a very organic approach to acting and it was a creative process, but I realised very quickly that this was a business. I didn’t like feeling like a pawn, a profit, and I remember a moment or two when I thought, ‘I’m walking away from all this.’ I wanted to be in control of my life again and I could really understand how a lot of people in Hollywood lose it,” she said. ANI