14 DAY TRIAL // Investigation Discovery has started airing season 2 of the series “Surviving Evil,” which is based on real-life events and aims to emphasize the resilience of the human spirit after a brutal attack. Charisma Carpenter, whom most fans know as Cordelia Chase from “Buffy,” was also featured on the pilot of the series and is now back for season 2.
Until last year, when her episode aired, perhaps not even her fans knew that she’d been attacked in 1991 by a serial rapist and barely escaped with her life. She recalled the traumatic experience on the pilot episode for the ID series, as she says in a new interview, because she wanted to “give something back.”
Her attacker, Henry Hubbard Jr., is now serving a very long prison sentence.
Charisma sat down for an interview with TooFab, explaining why she agreed to be a part of the show and to tell a story that she’d kept secret until then. She also talks about whether her decision impacted in any way her relationship with her 11-year-old son Donovan.
“I worked really hard to try to keep that personal story very private, I was very protective of the other survivors that I was with that night,” she says. “It wasn't until this show was brought to my attention, that I decided to share my story in this way. In a way of empowerment and inspiration, not a sensational headline or tabloid story.”
“When you share something personal and intense, people are less inclined to think of you as a celebrity and more of a human being,” the star continues.
She says that she hadn’t told her son about the attack, not because she was keeping it a secret but only because she’d never gotten the chance. It was Donovan who came to her, asking about it, after one of his friends told him he’d seen his mom on TV.
“They had seen the episode and I remember thinking ‘What parent let their kid watch Surviving Evil?’ It's after bedtime, it's during the week and it's really not meant for that demographic. But we talked about it and I said, ‘It can be a dangerous world and that's why mommy is very protective of you’,” Charisma says.
The second season of the series will be very “hard-hitting” but touching at the same time, the star continues. She’s clearly very passionate about the project and believes that this is the perfect way these people, who have been through such ordeals, can give something back and reach out to others in similar situations, to help them out.
Will you tune in for season 2 of “Surviving Evil”? Let us know in the comments section below.