Evan Rachel Wood says Marilyn Manson ‘essentially raped’ her on camera during ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’ music video shoot
Evan Rachel Wood claims in a new documentary that then-boyfriend Marilyn Manson “essentially raped” her on camera during a 2007 music video.
Wood, now 34, debuted the Amy Berg-directed documentary, “Phoenix Rising,” at the Sundance Film Festival Sunday, complete with graphic, horrifying allegations against the rocker, who she has accused of grooming, brainwashing and manipulation.
The 2007 video for “Heart Shaped Glasses,” which featured the “Thirteen” star having sex with Manson in a rainfall of blood, raised eyebrows at the time, but Wood now claims that the act was supposed to be simulated — until Manson actually penetrated her during the shoot.
“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,” Wood says in the documentary, according to Rolling Stone.
“It was complete chaos. I did not feel safe. No one was looking after me. It was a really traumatizing experience filming the video. I felt disgusting and that I had done something shameful and I could tell that the crew was uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do.
“I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses. That’s when the first crime was committed against me. I was essentially raped on camera.”
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Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, also forced Wood into giving positive press about the music video, which she referred to at the time as a “great, romantic time,” she claimed in “Phoenix Rising.”
“I was scared to do anything that would upset Brian in any way,” she said. “The video was just the beginning of the violence that would keep escalating over the course of the relationship.”
Manson’s attorney denied Wood’s allegations when reached by the Daily News Monday, claiming that she was “heavily involved in weeks of pre-production planning and days of post-production editing of the final cut.”
“The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with multiple takes using different angles and several long breaks in between camera setups,” his lawyer said.
A spokesperson for YouTube told The News Monday that he was “looking into” questions about plans to keep the music video on its platform.
Wood, who began dating Manson in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 38, named him as her abuser last year after speaking out repeatedly about an unnamed ex who had abused her during the relationship.
“My experience with domestic violence was this: Toxic mental, physical and sexual abuse which started slow but escalated over time, 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,” she told the House judiciary subcommittee in 2018 while advocating for Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights acts.
In front of the California Senate, Wood spoke of an abuser who “had bouts of extreme jealousy, which would often result in him wrecking our home, cornering me in a room, and threatening me.”
“I mustered the courage to leave several times, but he would call my house incessantly and threaten to kill himself,” she testified.
“On one occasion, I returned to try and defuse the situation, he cornered me in our bedroom, and asked me to kneel. Then he tied me up by my hands and feet. Once I was restrained he beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand. To him it was a way for me to prove my loyalty. The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day.”
Manson, who faces multiple civil lawsuits and allegations from other women, has denied all misconduct.
Los Angeles detectives seized hard drives from his home in November as part of the sheriff’s office’s investigation. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told The News Monday that detectives are still examining the evidence.
