Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared battered and bruised with clothes ripped and distressed like a rape victim__PHOTOS

Jennifer Love Hewitt is best known for her girl next door looks. But she made a startlingly transformation as she appeared battered and bruised to play a woman who has suffered a terrifying rape attack.

With her face scrubbed clean of make-up, clothes ripped and distressed, the only embellishment was the fake blood she had been daubed with.

Ghost Whisperer actress is appearing as a guest star on show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.And in between takes she was seen relaxing with the show’s star, actress Mariska Hargitay who plays Detective Olivia Benson.

Love Hewitt is playing a woman named Vicki who has been raped multiple times and is afraid to leave her house.

The show’s executive producer Neal Baer said, ‘One of the reasons we wanted to do this episode is because it addresses Mariska Hargitay’s passion for rape kits, which helps gather evidence to convict the rapists.

Hargitay co-founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, a charity that supports women and children who are victims of sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence.Hargitay is the youngest child of actors Jane Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay.

She was three years old when her mother was killed in a car crash in 1967.Hargitay and brothers Zoltan and Mickey Jr were in the backseat of the family car but escaped with minor injuries.