'Birth of a Nation' star Gabrielle Union: 'I cannot take these allegations lightly'

The Birth of a Nation star Gabrielle Union, longtime advocate for sexual assault victims and herself a survivor, says she's experiencing "stomach-churning confusion" about allegations against Nate Parker -- but is still urging people to see the movie.

"As important and ground-breaking as this film is, I cannot take these allegations lightly," Union wrote Friday in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.

Parker, whose adaptation of the Nat Turner Rebellion sold for a record $17.5 million after a rapturous reception at Sundance, has seen his Oscar hopes blunted after addressing 1999 rape allegation. Parker was acquitted, while Nation co-writer Jean Celestin's conviction was later vacated.

Union, who was raped at gunpoint 24 years ago, is the first of Parker's co-stars to speak on the controversy -- though the entire cast will soon have its say during junket interviews and a press conference scheduled for next week at the Toronto Film Fest.

The 43-year-old actress says she doesn't want people to lose sight of the Nat Turner story, even as controversy shadows the film. She said she took the role -- as the slave Esther, a slave who is raped in the film -- because she could relate to her.

Instead of using Parker's actions as a reason to ignore the film, Union urges audiences to go into it with the understanding that wounds they'll see onscreen have not healed.

"I also wanted to give a voice to my character, who remains silent throughout the film. In her silence, she represents countless black women who have been and continue to be violated," she explains. "Women without a voice, without power. Women in general. But black women in particular."

Union brings up the details of the case against Parker, pointing out that Parker acknowledges that he did not have verbal consent. "Although it’s often difficult to read and understand body language, the fact that some individuals interpret the absence of a 'no' as a 'yes' is problematic at least, criminal at worst," writes Union.

Union uses his case as a prime example of the ongoing need to better educate people, especially young men, on boundaries, rape culture and consent. By his own admission, Parker only started thinking critically about gender politics recently, just as he began to experience the consequences of his actions.

She sees the film and the controversy surrounding it as an opportunity, "to talk about this stain that lives on in our psyches," rather than sweep the conversations under a rug.