Chloë Grace Moretz is reflecting on her life in the spotlight.
The 25-year-old actress—who first made her TV debut in 2004 in The Guardian and gained more notoriety in 2005's The Amityville Horror—revealed how a previous experience with paparazzi changed her perspective on fame.
"It is kind of a distant memory, in the sense that I was a kid and 90 per cent of the time no one would really bother me. But after Kick-Ass, the first time I experienced paparazzi, it was 10 to 15 adult guys surrounding a 12-year-old girl," she told Hunger TV in a Sept. 20 interview. "They pushed my mom and she ended up falling into traffic."
Chloë added, "She didn't get hurt, but the situation was really chaotic."
The moment was one that has stuck with her since then, calling it "an assault on all the senses, with screaming and flashes."
"I got into the car afterwards and I just burst into tears," the Carrie star recalled. "I think that's my marker of before and after."
Chloë further admitted that there were moments she "questioned" who she was. As for how she was able to come to terms with her new life, Chloë credits therapy.
"I had to work through that," she told the outlet. "For a long time I was able to be the Chloë that people see and the Chloë that I am in private."
She added, "Then those two worlds collided and I felt really raw and vulnerable and open. And then came the onslaught of horrific memes that started getting sent to me about my body."
With the increased attention came a slew of internet trolls, one of which circulated a meme about her that Chloë was really bothered by.
"There was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand," she shared. "This photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy with the long legs and the short torso, and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time."
"I just remember sitting there and thinking," she continued, "my body is being used as a joke and it's something that I can't change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram."
Admitting that she has now become "recluse," Chloë is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
"To say that these past two years have been transformative is an understatement, to say the least," she noted. "I'm a very different girl than I was. I feel like a woman now."