Actress Laura Dern gave a speech at ELLE’s Women in Hollywood, sharing her experiences on being sexually assaulted and harassed by powerful men.

“For me, everything that’s brought me here to this specific gift of a night is connection and more specifically, how fierce bold women connect,” she said. “When the going gets tough they say every man for himself. So perhaps we will say, now more than ever, every woman for each other. Connection. Unity. The tribe. I’m here because of how you all have inspired me to crack open. So first, to the women; my teachers and guides. As a friend, a mother, an actor, a citizen and a champion, it’s always been about watching how the other women do it or what they’ve had to suffer or sacrifice. How they didn’t have a team of women on their side. That has required me to stand up and show up and try to put forth my best self.”

She later spoke on the assault with Ellen DeGeneres, saying:

“I was one of the lucky ones because I was raised by actors who told me their stories and told me what to look out for and I realized I was still justifying behavior. And it was my mom who said, ‘No, no, no, Laura, that was sexual assault. That was harassment. That was assault. No, you were 14 then, you were—‘ And you realize how in our culture how we have justified and therefore even condoned behavior as though it’s the norm.”