Did Marilyn Manson rape Evan Rachel Wood on camera? He wanted to carve M on her pelvis
Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic content about sexual assault
Evan Rachel Wood has accused ex-boyfriend Marilyn Manson of having 'essentially raped' her during a music video shoot. She has also alleged that he asked her to carve his initial into her pelvis. Manson had allegedly decorated their home with Nazi propaganda knowing full well that Wood is Jewish.
Wood's relationship with Manson, 53, began when she was 18. The 34-year-old has accused Manson of grooming and abusing her ever since. In Amy Berg's new documentary 'Phoenix Rising – Part I: Don't Fall', the actress opened up more about her experience. The documentary premiered on Sunday, January 23, at the Sundance Film Festival. It will air on HBO in March.
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Wood claimed in the documentary that during their relationship, Manson emotionally abused her, threatened her life, sexually assaulted her, separated her from her friends and family, and threatened her with anti-Semitic symbols and messages.
When Wood and Manson met in 2006, she was 18 and he was 37. Manson was married to Dita von Teese at that time and Wood had a boyfriend. However, the two eventually began dating. During their relationship, Manson allegedly said creepy and violent things to Wood, like 'you’re so important to me I want to kick you.' She said that over time, he isolated her from her friends and family. "He has studied this," said Wood’s mother, Sara Lynn Moore, according to the Daily Beast. "He's studied how to manipulate people. He's a predator — he's a predator."
As the abuse escalated, the two reportedly carved the other's initials into themselves. "Scarification and branding was part of it," Wood said. "He carved an E [into his skin] and I carved an M … as a way to show ownership and loyalty. And I carved it right next to my vagina to show him that I belonged to him."
Knowing that Wood is Jewish, Manson allegedly painted and filled his work with swastikas and other Nazi propaganda. He also put these around their home, Wood said. "At one point, over the side of the bed where I slept, he wrote "kill all the Jews" on our bedroom wall," she said. He also allegedly told her that Hitler was 'the first rock star because Hitler was stylish, he was well spoken, and he knew how to manipulate the masses.'
Wood also revealed that Manson raped her on camera when she was 19 while shooting for his music video for 'Heart-Shaped Glasses'. "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," she said, according to Pitchfork. "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."
"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," she added. "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 pretenses." "That’s when the first crime was committed against me and I was essentially raped on camera,' she continued, adding that it was 'just the beginning of the violence that would keep escalating over the course of the relationship.' Wood began speaking out about the abuse only in 2016, before which she kept all of it bottled up.
She publicly named Manson in 2021 after she started filming the documentary the year before. Manson's real name is Brian Warner. "I'm still terrified to name Brian publicly. I want to name him, it's all I want to do. I have received a number of threatening messages saying to shut my mouth, people know where I live," she said. "Brian also made it clear that if I ever said anything, he would come after me. He once told me he would f*** up my whole family from the bottom up and he would start with my dad. I have a child and it’s really scary."
"This isn’t about revenge, or, "He’s a monster and he needs to be punished and destroyed." He’s already destroyed. That man is not a man anymore; he is gone," she added. Responding to the film, Manson's lawyers said he 'vehemently denies any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone.'