AceShowbiz - Actress AnnaLynne McCord is baring all for the first time in her new project to celebrate the hardships she has faced in recent years.

The former "90210" star has always refused topless and nude scenes in TV dramas and movies, insisting that many of them seemed unnecessary, but now she's stripping for "Power Book III: Raising Kanan", currently in production in New York City.

"I never wanted to do nudity because I felt like women sometimes are made to feel they have to," AnnaLynne tells the "Watch With Us" podcast. "I was told when I was 14 years old by this model guru guy..., 'You'll never make it in Hollywood or in modelling if you're not going to do nude!' I was like, 'Oh, really? I think I'm gonna prove you wrong.' "

"This is the first time I'm doing it. I'm taking the top off. For me, it's about a statement. I've never done it in my career, and I wanted to (after) a lot of things that have happened to me in my life. I've spoken a lot for women and issues of sexual abuse and sexual assault. I was like, 'You know what? I'm ready to do it, because I want it to be about taking my sexuality back, taking my power back in that way.' "

In 2014, McCord revealed she was sexually assaulted in her teens and began speaking to students and young women who had shared her experience.

"The entire trajectory of my life has altered," she adds. "That little 18-year-old arrogant, teeny-bopper who came into the world of Hollywood with all of her crazy energy and her rigid ideologies is a very different 33-year-old woman. Why I do what I do is what has really changed."

"I love acting. I love that I get to do what my nine-year-old self dreamed of doing when she was little. I got to make her dream come true. And that makes me so very happy. But for me, now, if I'm not making a statement in some capacity, I'm not interested."