Evan Rachel Wood Reveals In New Documentary That Marilyn Manson 'Essentially Raped' Her In Music Video

Trigger Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers.

Last year, rock singer Marilyn Manson was accused by at least six women of abusing them. The ball was set rolling after actress and model, Evan Rachel Wood, who was formerly engaged to the singer, revealed that she had been abused by him physically and mentally for years through an Instagram post. This brought the other victims of his abuse together and they filed civil lawsuits against him. This included actress Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, former employee Ashley Walters, and another ex-girlfriend who chose to be anonymous. At the time, Manson denied these allegations stating all his "intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners."

Now, in the new documentary about Wood's life and career, Phoenix Rising, she has revealed more details about the abuse she faced at the hands of Manson. She alleged that when she featured in the 2007 video for Manson’s song Heart-Shaped Glasses, she was "essentially raped on camera." She said in the documentary, "It’s nothing like I thought it was going to be. 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…It was complete chaos. I did not feel safe. No one was looking after me."

The music video was Lolita-themed and Wood was only 19 at the time while Manson was 39. She was wearing a pair of heart-shaped shades like the one in the poster from the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film Lolita. The music video had them having sex as fake blood poured over them. Wood also revealed how she was fed absinthe on the set of the video and was barely conscious to object to Manson’s alleged actions, reported The Guardian. "I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses," she said. "That’s when the first crime was committed against me and I was essentially raped on camera."

Wood continued, "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. 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." Speaking about the music video back then, Manson had said, "[The glasses are] so iconic and it was meeting someone who had the sense of humor to know that, OK, people are going to make fun of the fact that it’s a Lolita-esque friendship/relationship, whatever the case might be."

This was not how Wood saw the incident at all. “I was supposed to tell people we had this great, romantic time and none of that was the truth," she said. "But I was scared to do anything that would upset [Manson] in any way. The video was just the beginning of the violence that would keep escalating over the course of the relationship." 

The documentary was directed by Amy Berg and the first part, Phoenix Rising—Part I: Don't Fall, premiered over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. In March, the documentary is set to premiere in two parts on HBO.