Christina Hendricks recently shared about her experiences of being bullied in high school and how it led to her love of acting.

The Mad Men actress said in a new interview with The Guardian that her life changed after her family moved from the small town of Twin Falls, Idaho, to Fairfax, Virginia because of her father’s job with the United States Forest Service. It was in her new town that the 39-year-old actress was terrorized by bullies.

“We had a locker bay, and every time I went down there to get books out of my locker people would sit on top and spit at me,” Hendricks said. “So I had to have my locker moved because I couldn’t go in there…I felt scared in high school. It was like Lord of the Flies. There was always some kid getting pummeled and people cheering.”

Hendricks said acting and going goth helped her deal with the pain of the bullying.

“My parents would say, ‘You’re just alienating everyone. You’ll never make any friends looking like that.’ And I would say, ‘I don’t want those people to be my friends,” she said. “I’m never going to be friends with the people who beat up a kid while everyone is cheering them on. I hate them.'”

Mad Men star, Christina Hendricks, reveals how she was bullied at high school… http://t.co/mn4GSu89lK pic.twitter.com/j2wylvVJX6

— E! Online UK (@EOnlineUK) August 4, 2014

It’s always interesting how some of the most painful experiences can be the inciting action for future happiness. Hendricks is now a successful actress and is happily married to Geoffrey Arend.

The actress is also very comfortable and confident in her decisions for her family.

Hendricks recently said she and Arend have had a “million conversations” about not wanting to have kids.

Mad Men's Christina Hendricks speaks out about her decision not to have kids http://t.co/TyZcffX78N pic.twitter.com/a99sKQWQZG

— Stylist Magazine (@StylistMagazine) August 4, 2014

“I mean, they are a lot of work,” she conceded. “I think in my mid-20s I [wanted kids] because I was moving around a lot and didn’t have that sense of community, of being rooted.”

“I know plenty of people who don’t have children,” Hendricks added. “And I also get a lot of people who say, ‘Thank you for speaking out, my family don’t understand why I don’t want kids.'”

Image via Wikimedia Commons