American actress Evan Rachel Wood accuses singer Marilyn Manson of raping her while taking advantage of the filming of one of her music videos. Evan Rachel Wood, known in particular for her role in the series Westworld, makes his accusations in the documentary Phoenix Rising, presented Monday, January 24 at the Sundance Film Festival.
In this HBO production, which shows the fight to increase the statute of limitations on sex crimes to allow victims to obtain justice, the actress looks back on the set in 2007 of the music video for Heart Shaped Glasses, one of the hits of Marilyn Manson, then his companion.
“We had talked about a simulated sex scene. But when the cameras were rolling, he started actually penetrating me. I had never agreed to that.”
Actress Evan Rachel Woodin the documentary “Phoenix Rising”
Actress since childhood, she explains that she “didn’t know how to say no” because she had “been conditioned and trained never to answer, to go all the way”.
Evan Rachel Wood started dating Marilyn Manson in 2006 when she was 18. The singer was 37 at the time. “I was coerced into a commercial sex act under a false pretense. (…) I was raped on camera, she testifies. I can say that the team was very embarrassed and nobody knew what to do.” According to the documentary, Marilyn Manson then pressured the young woman to assure reporters that there was no real sex scene during filming.
The singer’s lawyer, Howard King, has denied the accusations. “Of all of Evan Rachel Wood’s false claims about Brian Warner [le vrai nom de Marilyn Manson], his fanciful retelling of the shooting of the ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’ music video 15 years ago is the most brazen and easily disproved, as there were many witnesses”, he wrote in a press release sent to AFP.
Several women, like the actress Esmé Bianco (seen in Game Of Thrones), accused Marilyn Manson of rape and other assaults, which he denies. His record label Loma Vista Recordings and his talent agency CAA both severed relations with the singer following the accusations against him. However, he continues to record titles and appears in particular on the album donda released last year by Kanye West.