Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has been accused of abuse and other violent behavior by at least 15 women including actress Evan Rachel Wood. In a new HBO documentary, “Phoenix Rising,” Wood details her “traumatizing” experience with Manson and she alleges she was “essentially r*ped on camera” during the filming of Manson’s 2007 single “Heart-Shaped Glasses (When The Heart Guides The Hand).” “We had discussed a simulated sex scene,” Wood said, “but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real. 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.”
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.
Actress Evan Rachel Wood, on filming the video for Marilyn Manson’s 2007 single, “Heart-Shaped Glasses …”
“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. 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 pretences. That’s when the first crime was committed against me.”
Wood said that learning about the testimonies from other Manson accusers “was like finding out you dated a serial killer. This isn’t about revenge, or, ‘He’s a monster and he needs to be punished and destroyed.’ He’s already destroyed.”
Manson’s lawyer, Howard King, previously said the singer “vehemently denies any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone.” Manson himself has called the allegations “horrible distortions of reality,” and are part of a “coordinated attack” by women who are “cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement.” “Phoenix Rising” premiered at the Sundance film festival on Jan. 23.
