Evan Rachel Wood claims Marilyn Manson 'essentially raped' her in 2007 music video
Evan Rachel Wood claims Marilyn Manson "essentially raped" her while making the music video for his 2007 single "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)."
The allegation was made in Phoenix Rising, the documentary about Wood's life, including the four-year relationship she was in with the shock rocker. Wood revealed in 2016 that she had been previously raped by a significant other — and in February named Manson as her alleged abuser.
In the first part of the docuseries, which debuted Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival and will premiere on HBO in March, Wood discussed being groomed into the relationship with Manson (real name: Brian Warner), who was 18 years her senior, in 2006 when she was just 18. She said his "first crime" against her allegedly took place a year later when making his 2007 "Heart-Shaped Glasses" video.
"It's nothing like I thought it was going to be," the actress said of the video, which ended with their characters having sex in bed while drenched in blood. "We were doing things that were not what was pitched to me."
The Westworld actress claimed Manson actually had sex with her. She said she had been fed absinthe on the set and felt barely conscious.
"We had discussed a simulated sex scene, but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real," she said. "I had never agreed to that. I’m a professional actress, I have been doing this my whole life, I’d never been on a set that unprofessional in my life up until this day. It was complete chaos, and I did not feel safe. No one was looking after me."
Wood said it was "a really traumatizing experience filming the video. I didn’t know how to advocate for myself or know how to say no because I had been conditioned and trained to never talk back — to just soldier through," explained the Thirteen actress. "I felt disgusting and like I had done something shameful, and I could tell that the crew was very uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do. I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses."
She said, "That’s when the first crime was committed against me and I was essentially raped on camera."
Manson has denied Wood's allegations — as well as those from other accusers who came forward, including Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco and his former assistant Ashley Walters Manson.
“Obviously, my life and my art have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality," he said last year. "My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how — and why — others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth."
In the doc, Wood talked about being groomed by Manson, who she claims isolated her from her friends and family. He was the the first adult man who she ever kissed, recalling Manson jamming his tongue down her throat when they were talking and feeling "icky" after. She spoke about them branding their relationship, carving their initials on each other. Wood, who is Jewish, talked about how he also began to express interest in Nazism while they were together, hanging the words "Kill All the Jews" over their bed.
The doc also looks at Wood championing the domestic violence bill Phoenix Act in California, which extends the time victims have to come forward and get justice. It was signed into law in 2019.
Wood spoke after the screening in a virtual Q&A, saying she agreed to make the doc, directed by Amy Berg, because: "It's time for me to tell the truth. It's time for me to finally tell my side. I can't have it told for me anymore and people are going to believe whatever they're going to believe. It's not my job to convince people. I'm not lying. It's my job to tell the truth and that's what I've done."
Wood added, "Unfortunately my story is not unique. It’s unique in the way that it’s been in the spotlight and that it’s gone virtually unnoticed, but the tactics and everything involved is very common."
