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In a new documentary about her life, the actress Evan Rachel Wood said that her former boyfriend Marilyn Manson “essentially raped [her] on camera” while filming a music video in 2007, when she was 19 and he was 38. In the film, Phoenix Rising — which premiered this Sunday at Sundance — Wood describes how she and Manson, who she was dating at the time, had discussed doing a simulated sex scene for the video for Manson’s song “Heart Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand).” But during filming, Wood says Manson started “penetrating me for real” while she was barely conscious, having been given absinthe on set.
Manson responded with a statement from his lawyer, Howard King, who told E! News that Manson “did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.” King continued, calling Wood’s account an “imaginative retelling,” and claiming that she was “fully coherent” during the shoot. “The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with multiple takes using different angles and several long breaks in between camera setups,” he said, adding that there were “multiple witnesses.”
At the time the video — which was directed by Manson and inspired by Lolita — came out, the sex scene between Wood and Manson was graphic enough that many suspected it wasn’t a simulation. According to Wood, Manson instructed her to tell journalists that she’d had a “romantic” time on set. Meanwhile, he seemed to publicly enjoy speculation about a more sinister reality. “There’s been rumors back and forth, but I will not confirm or deny them,” he told MTV News at the time. Manson also said that no actress but Wood could have been in the video, “because it was inspired by her.”
Wood, now 34, described the incident as being “coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses,” which she said was “just the beginning” of Manson’s years of violence. It’s not the first time Wood has accused Manson — who she dated until 2010 — of abuse. In 2018, Wood testified before the California senate about an anonymous abusive relationship she’d had, eventually naming Manson as her abuser in 2021. She’s since accused him him of anti-Semitic abuse and threatening to harm her son.
After Wood first went public with her accusations, Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — was dropped by his recording label and his agency. More than a dozen women have since come forward to speak out about Manson, including actress Esme Bianco and his former personal assistant. Manson’s accusers have relayed unsettlingly consistent accounts of his abusive behavior, which allegedly includes sexual assault, sexual battery, human trafficking, physical and psychological torture — including physical branding — and more. Manson has categorically denied his accusers’ allegations, calling them “horrible distortions of reality.” He is currently under investigation in Los Angeles over multiple allegations of sexual and physical assault. The Cut has reached out to Manson’s representatives for comment.
