ROSARIO DAWSON DISCUSSES RAPE SCENES

Rosario Dawson talks about the graphic rape scenes in Descent and how they affected the actors emotionally.

In the film Descent Rosario Dawson plays a college student who has her whole life ahead of her, but then her blooming sensuality is snuffed out by a seemingly harmless guy who date rapes her.

Rosario who was involved with the project for the past five years knew what was required of her emotionally for the vulnerable scene.

“I psyched myself up for it in a very different way and made the agreement that I was willing to go there a long time ago so I had a different kind of release for it. I also knew I had a different kind of switch to turn off. It’s not disassociating. I was always in it. I had to always be in it. I was very cognizant. I was very present. Every single bit of it was important to me, not just the rape. And I had to be willing to go there and it made me angry and it really hurt and it wasn’t fun.”

In turn there is a brutal rape revenge scene on the rapist played by Chad Faust. Rosario describes the emotional toll it took on both of them.

“We had really gotten close during that whole production. We were very raw with each other and very comfortable. That was much easier for him to go through than it was with my rape. That was much more difficult because in that one he was fully taking it on and experiencing it. And he was really willing to go there and was raw and he was vulnerable because he was naked but he felt really comfortable with us because it was towards the end of the shoot. I definitely had a hard time with my rape as well. It was more strange for me that I had to console him through it because he was having a really difficult time with it as well and having to make him feel better in having safe words with each other, physicality with each other and having to really structure it.”

Descent is currently playing in theaters.