Marilyn Manson, via his attorney, has responded to Evan Rachel Wood’s claims that she was “essentially raped on-camera” by Manson during a 2007 music video shoot.
via People:
Manson’s attorney Howard King denied Wood’s allegations in a statement to PEOPLE, claiming that Manson “did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.”
The Westworld actress, 34, alleged in the documentary Phoenix Rising that she was “coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses” while filming the music video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses” with her then-boyfriend Manson, 53.
Wood is among at least 15 other women who have accused the rocker (born Brian Warner) of sexual assault. Three of his accusers, including ex-girlfriend Ashley Morgan Smithline and Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, have filed lawsuits. Manson has denied all allegations, which he has called “horrible distortions of reality.”
“Of all the false claims that Evan Rachel Wood has made about Brian Warner, her imaginative retelling of the making of the ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’ music video 15 years ago is the most brazen and easiest to disprove, because there were multiple witnesses,” King’s statement read. “Evan was not only fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot but also 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.”
Wood made her most recent claims against Manson in part one of the documentary, which premiered on Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival.
She said she was groomed into a relationship with the musician from mid-2006 until early 2011, and likened their romance to being under the influence of his “cult.”
In the documentary, Wood said the music video shoot was “the first crime [he] committed against me.”
“It’s nothing like I thought it was going to be,” Wood 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.”
The three-time Emmy nominee said she “did not feel safe” on set, and that it was a “really traumatizing experience,” after which she felt “disgusting.” She noted that she was “scared” to speak out about the incident at the time, citing violence that would “keep escalating over the course of the relationship.”
Wood first opened up about being sexually assaulted by a “significant other”in 2016, and later testified before Congress in support of multiple pieces of legislation meant to protect survivors of sexual assault. She eventually named Manson as her alleged abuser in February 2021.
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail.”
In a virtual Q&A session after the documentary screening, Wood said she felt as though it was “time for me to tell my 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,” she said. “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. It’s all I can do.”
Since when has a rapist ever admitted to being a rapist outside of a court of law? All 15+ women accusing Marilyn of sex abuse can’t be lying.
