Minka Kelly reveals details from her childhood
Minka Kelly Reveals Details From Her Traumatic Childhood in New Memoir: 'I Carried a Lot of Shame' (Exclusive) https://t.co/aUy7lPMoqJ
- People (@people) April 13, 2023
Minka Kelly's memoir Tell Me Everything is being released on May 2. She talks about how cathartic it was to write about the things she had felt embarrassed about, saying, "I started with the scariest part. The part that I carried the most shame about, the part that I felt the most embarrassed of, the part that I hid my whole life, and the part that I've had people make me feel bad about. And I felt like that was just where I had to be the most brave. It felt very liberating to sort of own my history as opposed to feel like I need to hide it anymore."
A lot of the book deals with her relationship with her mom, Maureen, who was a single parent struggling with addiction as well as domestic violence. At one point, she couldn't pay rent so they lived in a storage shed. To make ends meet, she worked as a stripper and would take 7 year old Minka to Crazy Girls during her shifts.
"If she made a lot of money that night, we'd go grocery shopping at 2 a.m. My childhood was colorful and chaotic, unstable and inconsistent, unpredictable and hard a lot of the times. But the silver lining is that it made me a very adaptable person."
Her mom would leave Minka with various friends for months at a time. As a result, Minka performed in peep shows at an Albuquerque adult-video store when she was 17 because she wanted to support herself financially. She said her first boyfriend was a toxic relationship that resulted in an abortion and a coerced sex tape.
She admitted that she didn't know much about acting when she was cast on Friday Night Lights.
"I was terrified because I was in way over my head. I was learning as I was going. So you see me on that show literally learn how to do what I do. Funny enough, at that point in my career, I was very curious about what people thought of me. And I have to be honest, reading a lot of really mean things about me helped. I was just able to read the feedback constructively."
She said she her relationship with FNL costar Taylor Kitsch taught her not to have on-set romances. Although Peter Berg warned her against it, she admitted that was something she had to learn for herself.
She became estranged from her mom when Maureen started asking her for more financial support. They didn't reconcile until Maureen was diagnosed with colon cancer and the doctor said she had only two years to live. Minka's therapist suggested that she confront her mother about the childhood issues that had bothered her.
"I saw her start to crumble in shame and regret and pain when she was already in so much of all of those things, and I just immediately thought, 'I don't need to do this to her. I only need to forgive her and love her. She's already broken. What is the point of pouring salt on the wound? I'm fine. I just want to take care of her right now."
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