Union tweets about controversial video

In her video "Man Down," Rihanna shoots and kills her attacker. In real life, Gabrielle Union shot at her own.

The actress, an advocate for abused women and children, has long spoken of being raped as a 19-year-old college freshman on a summer job. A Twitter-follower Saturday asked for her opinion about Rihanna's controversial clip.

"Every victim/survivor of rape is unique," Union, 38, tweeted after seeing the video, "including how they think they'd like justice to be handed out. During my rape," she wrote, "I tried to shoot my rapist, but I missed." That turned out to be a good thing, she said. "Over the years I realized that killing my rapist would've added insult to injury."

Union ("Deliver Us from Eva," "Bad Boys II") told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2003 she was working at a discount shoe store in her hometown of Pleasanton, Calif., closing up with a female co-worker, when a man walked in, robbed the register, herded them into a room and made Union come out without her clothes.

During the commission of the rape, she told Dr. Laura Berman of Oprah Radio in 2009, he "put the gun down, and had the nerve to ask me, 'Oh, do you mind handing me my gun?' . . . I grabbed the gun, did my best Starksy & Hutch impression, and tried to do my best to kill him, stop him. And unfortunately I missed and we ended up having a battle for the gun, and I was beaten beyond recognition. And then luckily, after threatening to kill me, he left."

He was caught about two weeks later, she said, "and he's now serving 33 years" after a plea deal.

The video "did a great job of getting the entire world talking about rape," Union tweeted. "I hope that it leads to healing and prevents rape." But, she cautioned, "The desire to kill someone who has abused/raped you is understandable, but unless it's self-defense in the moment to save yourself . . . [You are] taking justice into your own [hands]."

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