In his new memoir Let Love Have the Last Word, Common reveals he was sexually abused as a child.
The 47-year-old didn't grasp the full extent of the molestation until 2017 when he was filming the movie The Tale -- which deals with repressed memories of childhood abuse -- with his co-star Laura Dern
One day, while talking through the script with Laura, old memories surprisingly flashed in my mind," he begins. "I caught my breath and just kept looping the memories over and over, like rewinding an old VHS tape. I said ‘Laura, I think I was abused.'"
Common says the abuse happened during a family trip who took from Chicago to Cleveland when he was 9.
"I was excited for a road trip I was about to take with my family. My mother; my godmother, Barbara; her son and my godbrother Skeet; and his relative, who I’ll call Brandon," he explains.
"At some point I felt Brandon’s hand on me. I pushed him away. I don’t remember saying a whole lot besides ‘No, no, no.' He kept saying ‘It’s okay, It’s okay,’ as he pulled down my shorts and molested me. After he stopped he kept asking me to perform it on him. I kept repeating ‘No’ and pushing him away. I felt a deep and sudden shame for what happened,"
Common is now working through these memories with a therapist. He hopes his book can help other people.
"Hopefully, people can open up about what they may have experienced in life. I'm telling what I feel and ways that I've dealt with it, and I want people to know that it's a safe place to talk about things you go through."