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I Survived Evil is not just the title of the new Investigation Discovery series that Charisma Carpenter will be hosting — it’s also a declaration the actress herself can make.
Back in 1991, years before she traded barbs with Buffy, Carpenter and two friends were swimming at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego when they were violently attacked by Henry Hubbard Jr., then a 29-year-old police officer.
During the encounter, Hubbard, brandishing a gun, ordered Carpenter to tie up her male friends. But Carpenter refused, affording her companions opportunity to jump and overpower Hubbard, ultimately leading to his capture and arrest — even as the young men suffered non-fatal bullet wounds along the way.
Carpenter meanwhile held onto the police-issue flashlight Hubbard used, to help seal his conviction for that assault which, when combined with a string of others, earned him a 56-year prison sentence.
Though Carpenter has never openly discussed the harrowing incident, “Now I’m in a place where I could. I have enough distance — and a lot of therapy — between then and what happened and now,” she tells TVLine. “It’s not as fresh. It’s not as painful.”
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Investigation Discovery’s I Survived Evil, which starts production later this summer with an eye on a 2013 bow, will chronicle similar true stories of ordinary people who successfully warded off attackers. That Carpenter, given her own such scare, was approached to host the series was pure coincidence. “I don’t think [the producers] knew,” she ventures. “And when I told them, they were like, ‘This makes perfect sense. We want you to be even more a part of the process.'”
Indeed, Carpenter — who currently stars on ABC Family’s The Lying Game — hopes her new gig will not explore just the surviving but also the evil at hand.
Reflecting on Hubbard’s string of sexual assaults and violent attacks, she cannot help but wonder, “What happens in a life that a person can get to a place where it’s a good idea to become a serial rapist? I mean, I have a child, so how does a kid go from normal to not?”
Though Hubbard revealed in testimony that he grew up with an alcoholic father, “It seemed like his life was back on track” at the time he unleashed his reign of terror, Carpenter recalls. “He was top of his class in police academy, he was married with a baby on the way…. From an anthropological point of view, I’m very curious what happened.”
Carpenter may get her answers, since I Survived Evil‘s very first episode will delve into the nightmare she lived through at the Torrey Pines beach.
While she herself will not participate in any reenactment of that assault — “It’d be a little creepy,” she admits — Carpenter does plan to have the cameras “walk along that very beach” with her and, hopefully, address Hubbard himself.
“I’m interested in a sit-down, to ask him myself questions [I have],” she says. “Whether or not Hubbard will let me [I don’t know], but my producers are interested, though they’re treating it very delicately. I think they’re worried about me, but really, I’m OK with it.”
Or at least she at this instant believes she is. “You don’t really know until you’re in a chair opposite someone like that… but I think I’m OK with it,” she clarifies. “I just want to say to him, ‘What happened to you? Tell me your cautionary tale.'”
Subsequent installments of the 10-episode series will cover two stories apiece.
“It’s about empowerment, about victims who take fate into their own hands and rescue themselves, or seek justice and find it,” Carpenter says of I Survived Evil‘s mission. “It’s about heroes, stories of survival. And happy endings.”
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I’ve loved Charisma since Buffy and fell in love with her even more on Angel. It was a shame they killed her off. Either way, I look forward to Charisma having her own show. One potential loyal viewer already!
I agree!
First of all, I love you Charisma, it was great meeting you at a con a while back, you are beautiful with a great personality. Congrats on your next show, you deserve it, and I hope you come here to Chicago again one of these days!
I have to agree with all the people here. I was sad to see her disappear off the small screen for so long. Excited to see her return. I am encouraged that she has been emboldened and stronger from her ordeal.
Love Charisma.
Isn’t this kind of like I Survived… just with more attackers and less cougar attacks?
Glad to see her beautiful face back on TV!
I’ve got to give her credit for even thinking of sitting across from her attempted attacker to ask him, “Why?” Were I in her shoes, I’m not sure that I could confront him, or that I would want to explore his thought process.
Wow, She’s a survivor. Long live Cordelia! Thanks Charisma, I’ll be sure to tune in!
Charisma is wonderful! So sorry to hear about her ordeal, but glad she is able to move on from it and educate others about potential dangers. Kudos to her!
I swear I saw her talking about this on some Discovery type show a few years before she hit it big on Buffy. It was her and the two guys on a beach talking about what had happened to them. I never could find any info about it, now I know I wasn’t dreaming!
I’ve always wondered about that, too, what factors drive someone to become so violent and evil.
Scary, scary story. So glad she made it through all right.
I’ve loved everything I have seen Charisma in and I look forward to seeing more of her, although I am not really in to reality shows. I would prefer to see her in a sitcom or such.
I too have been a long fan of Charisma since her days on Buffy, I still remember throwing my remote across the room when I realized she was being killed off on ‘Angel’ – and I’ve never heard anything about this story before. She definitely got a viewer in me and I wish her and show luck :)
Oh man. The world would be a much better place if people who crave power and authority never get what they want.
I look forward to watching it.
How is she STILL so stunningly beautiful?! I love Charisma, will watch her in anything.
I love Charisma but isn’t this just ID’s version of I Survied which is on the Biography channel? Just sayin….
aww! I so love Charisma! I do agree with everyone ’bout Cordelia’s death in Angel. She and Boreanaz work amazingly 2gether! BONES’d be more exciting if these 2 were there. Hoping against hope that some wise producer could see it and try working something out with ’em in a good future sitcom. Would be a dream come true cuz I gotta tell ya, Angel, talk about be frustated! Well,all said… Charisma,good luck on your new show!!
I’ve loved Charisma since before Buffy, when she was on a short-lived show called Malibu Shores, which also starred pre-Felicity Keri Russell. I agree, it’s a shame the way the show Angel treated Cordelia in the final seasons.
I love how well spoken and deep this woman is. Just more reasons to love her. Will definitely be watching!
Love Carpenters’ other work but it won[‘t be enough to make me want to sit through the very real pain of others. It’s way too much like digging through the remains of a train wreck for a bloody shoe to keep as a souvenier. This kind of ‘entertainment’ doesn’t make anyone a better person, it just provides bored people justification to hate. Icky.
Justification to hate bad people??
I see it as a way to learn how other people got away, so if I am every in a bad situation I will have ideas.
I agree with U, Michaela! Is a proven scientific fact that we learn from watching others. It’s as simple as that. From infant to adult, we have learned everything we know by watching our parents/others.(Being a mother & watching my 5yr old grow up mimicking everything my husband & I do, has forced me to step back a bit & watch her from a scientific POV)
Someone who watchs an episode of this show, or any similar show, may walk away a survivor from watching & learning how others did it.
I’m a HUGE Whedonite & Charisma fanatic so I will def watch this show. I wish Charisma would get a drama (or any genre) series of her own!! I like the idea someone mentioned about she & David Boreanaz doing something together someday or maybe even join cast of BONES. I’m also a big fan of Charisma & Nicholas Brendon working together. They have great on-screen chemistry!
Ok, sorry for the BabelFest;)
I REALLY hope they air this show in Australia. I’m a big Charisma fan, have been since Buffy & I think this show in general sounds good to watch.
I always loved Charisma Carpenter ‘s character on Buffy and Angel. She was strong and opinionated and spoke her mind with no apologies and I admired her for that. Now that I’ve heard her harrowing tale of survival I admire and respect her even more. She is a fighter both on screen and in real life.
Wooooow I knew I recognized her when I kept seeing this show advertised!!! I was like isn’t that Cordelia! At first I thought it was the other show on ID named ” I survived”…. I’m so glad she made it through!! God bless her… I always am deeply touched by people’s courage on these type shows to speak out…. It took me over 11 years to even reveal a situation that happened to me openly…I understand her completely….. people can REALLY be EVIL!!
I’m surprised she was able to go on and act in some pretty scary scenes in Buffy after a real life attack like that. She’s a strong woman.
Where is Henry Hubbard, jr.? Has he been released from prison?
Dude, someone should slap your math teacher.. The assault happened in 1991.. the guy still has like 30 years left locked up… Google “Henry Hubbard jr.” for more info… (duh)..
Why i adore her as an actress, I am a fan of the I.D. channel where her show airs and her story in comparison to those that the show depicts ARE NOTHING ALIKE. She sustained no injuries and had others with her to help. Most of the women on her show were kidnapped or robbed and were either with children or ALONE. Its a little disappointing that she is comparing her ordeal with women who have suffered real loss and real physical pain. Not saying being held at gun point isn’t scary. I have personally been held at gunpoint. at the age of 13 my older sister and I walked in on a robbery in progress while Christmas shopping. I would never compare that to a person shot in a robbery or kidnapped. It’s just NOT on the same level
I couldn’t agree more! I will agree that being held at gunpoint is quite traumatic, but being kidnapped, raped, and/or tortured (like most of the other episodes) is quite a different and more extreme!
It might not be the same but the fact that you guys are saying that her ordeal isn’t the same and the way you are choosing to say that is offensive. No story is ever going to be the same and while the acts involved in those events may vary on a horrible to extremely horrible kind of scale it doesn’t give us the right to judge someone on that. Instead of pointing out that her story “isn’t as bad as others” maybe you should try to focus on he fact that she and others were brave enough to come forward and tell their stories to begin with. Each and every one of these people brave enough to relive their story so that we can watch and hopefully learn/take something away from their experience is amazing. So anyone judging the “level” of horrible that any of these (or other) people went through should be ashamed.