The actress testifies in the documentary Phoenix Rising and accuses Marilyn Manson, her companion at the time, of having raped her during the filming of a clip.
Evan Rachel Wood testified about his sexual assault to Congress in 2018. Powerful and necessary testimony to support legislation to better protect victims of sexual assault. Last year, she named her alleged attacker. Today, she delivers a new testimony that is chilling.
In the documentary Phoenix Rising, presented at the Sundance Film Festival and airing soon on HBO, the actress and activist describes her toxic and violent relationship with her ex-boyfriend Brian Warner alias Marilyn Manson.
Evan Rachel Wood hid the singer’s name for years after first speaking out about the abuse she suffered, but named Marilyn Manson in an Instagram post in February 2021, who has since denied her allegations.
Several women have also accused the artist of physical and sexual abuse, including Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, and he has been the subject of several lawsuits by his accusers.
A chilling tale
In 2006, the year of his meeting with Marilyn Manson, Evan Rachel Wood is 19 years old and appears in the clip of the song Heart Shaped Glasses. When a sex scene was to be simulated between Wood and Manson, the actress reveals that he penetrated her on camera.
I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses,” she says in the documentary. “That’s when the first crime was committed against me, and I was raped in front of the police. camera.
At the time, out of fear, she said filming this music video was romantic. Marilyn Manson’s attorney, Howard King, sent a statement to USA Today challenging Evan Rachel Wood’s account and his accusations, calling them “shameless” and “easy to refute” given “that there were several witnesses“.
“Evan was not only fully engaged during the three days of filming, but also heavily involved in the weeks of pre-production planning and post-production editing days of the final cut.“, continues the lawyer in his declaration.
“The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with several takes from different angles and several long pauses between camera setups. Brian didn’t sleep with Evan on that set, and she knows that’s the truth.“
In Phoenix Rising, Evan Rachel Wood also details Marilyn Manson’s affinity for Adolf Hitler, saying he filled his paintings with swastikas and Nazi imagery. She says he made fun of her because she was born Jewish, and that at one point in their relationship he wrote “kill all Jews” on their bedroom wall.
During a question and answer session with the press during the presentation of the documentary at Sundance, director Amy Berg assured that Marilyn Manson is still protected by the music industry.
Also present, Evan Rachel Wood also took the media to task. “The way the press has treated this story for many, many years is shameful“, she blasted. “And it’s time we finally tell the full story.“