Yahoo Movies Evan Rachel Wood Details Shocking Abuse Accusations Against Marilyn Manson In A New Documentary
Trigger warning: Sex abuse
Evan Rachel Wood is sharing new details about her past relationship with Marilyn Manson in a new documentary.
Phoenix Rising – Part I: Don't Fall, debuted at The Sundance Film Festival and will be available to watch on HBO later this year.
The 34-year-old actress claims that Manson raped her on camera while they were shooting a music video.
Evan Rachel Wood is opening up about her past in a new documentary. The Westworld star, 34, partnered with director Amy Berg to tell the story of the abuse she claims to have suffered from her ex-fiancé Brian Warner (a.k.a. Marilyn Manson) in the film Phoenix Rising — Part I: Don't Fall.
The documentary comes four years after Evan testified in Congress to push for the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights Acts to be passed in all 50 states. At the time, Evan said that she survived abuse from an unnamed person, including "threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body," per People.
Then, on Feb. 1 2021, Evan named Manson in an Instagram post, stating "I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail." Since then, multiple men, women, and former employees have also come forward to accuse Manson of physical and sexual abuse, according to USA Today and another Instagram post from Evan.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Manson, who maintains that the claims of abuse are false. The documentary includes a statement from Manson's lawyers that says he "vehemently denies any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone. These lurid claims against my client have three things in common – they are all false, alleged to have taken place more than a decade ago and part of a coordinated attack by former partners and associates of Mr. Warner who have weaponized the otherwise mundane details of his personal life and their consensual relationships into fabricated horror stories."
Evan met Manson at a party in 2006, when she was 18 and he was 36. Their relationship began soon after, and the pair got engaged in 2010 before splitting a few months later.
In the documentary, Evan says that Manson isolated her from her family. He "love bombed" her with messages of his devotion to her and convinced her to carve an "M" on her pelvis, while he carved an "E" on his own body.
Then, when she was 19, Evan was featured in Manson's music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses." The plan was to show a simulated sex scene. But on the day of, "it's nothing like I thought it was going to be," Evan said.
"We're doing things that were not what was pitched to me... We had discussed a simulated sex scene, but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real. I had never agreed to that. I'm a professional actress, I've been doing this my whole life; I've never been on a set that unprofessional in my life up until this day."
"It was complete chaos," she added, per People. "I did not feel safe. No one was looking after me. 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."
After, Evan said she "felt disgusting and that I had done something shameful, and I could tell that the crew was very uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do." She realized “I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses. That’s when the first crime was committed against me, and I was essentially raped on-camera.”
The incident was “just the beginning of the violence that would escalate over the course of the relationship,” Evan shared.
The actress explained that she wants Phoenix Rising to shed light on stories of abuse in a Q&A after the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. "I went to (Berg) very desperate to be heard and for this story to be told and for people to finally pay attention to what we've been saying and how serious it is," she said. "My story is not unique."
Phoenix Rising — Part I: Don't Fall will be available on HBO in March, per Vulture.
If you have experienced sexual violence and are seeking help or would like more information, call the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at 1-800-656-4673 from anywhere in the U.S. Or chat online with a trained RAIIN staff member who can provide you with confidential crisis support.
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