Mena Suvari says she couldn't 'fully enjoy' “American Pie” experience because of a 'toxic' relationship

Suvari played choir girl Heather in the raunchy teen comedy and its sequels.

For all the jokes that were in the American Pie movies, they were a serious lifeline for actress Mena Suvari.

Suvari "was in a relationship where it was very toxic," she explained on Tuesday's episode of Sony Music Entertainment’s Dinner's On Me podcast, hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. And, in fact, she was "brainwashed into being separated from those people."

Related: Alyson Hannigan hopes to keep her daughters from watching American Pie 'until they’re in college'

Having begun acting professionally as a teen, in TV series such as Boy Meets World, ER, and Chicago Hope, Suvari snagged her first movie roles in films such as Slums of Beverly Hills, American Beauty, and, yep, the hit teen comedy that infamously featured Jason Biggs in a compromising position with a certain pastry.

Being part of the mostly young cast — which also included Alyson Hanningan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nichols, Tara Reid, Shannon Elizabeth, Sean William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Natasha Lyonne — allowed her to "be my age, to have fun."

"American Pie kind of, like, gave me my high school experience. I didn't go to prom. I didn't have a boyfriend in high school. It was hard," Suvari said. "And...those [films] were beautiful gifts, but again I couldn't fully enjoy them."

Related: The cast of American Pie: Where are they now?

For instance, she said, "I didn't really hang out with, like, the cast of American Pie, because I was in a different space, and I was in this space of hiding that."

Even so, Suvari said "working on those films were the greatest gift to me."

Released July 9, 1999, American Pie told the story of a group of male friends on a mission to lose their virginity. Suvari played Heather, the choir singer who wins the heart of Klein's character, Oz, who joined just to meet girls, but ends up falling in love with Heather. Suvari reprised her role in 2001's American Pie 2 and American Reunion in 2012.

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Suvari has since appeared in a number of critical and box office disappointments, but has had some notable guest appearances on TV shows including Six Feet Under, Chicago Fire, and American Horror Story.

Her new film, Joseph Kahn’s sci-fi/horror satire Ick that costars Brandon Routh, recently screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

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