Evan Rachel Wood Says She Was Raped By Marilyn Manson During Video Shoot In New Documentary

Actor Evan Rachel Wood has provided more detail on the alleged abuse she endured during her relationship with Marilyn Manson. Wood discussed these stories in the first part of the documentary Phoenix Rising, which premiered Sunday night at the virtual Sundance Film Festival 2022, and chronicles her story of the relationship, abuse and subsequent journey as an activist working against domestic violence.

Wood first spoke about being raped by a significant other in a Rolling Stone interview in 2016. She named Manson as her abuser in early 2021 and claimed among other accusations that he groomed her before beginning to date her, abused her physically, and even became increasingly antisemitic during their four-year relationship.

Wood told her story more completely in Phoenix Rising. She claimed Manson “essentially raped on camera” while filming the music video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses.” The title itself is a reference to glasses worn by the title character in the film adaptation of the controversial novel Lolita, which centers around a sexually abusive relationship between a child molester and a 12-year-old girl.

The video ends with Manson and Wood’s characters having sex in bed while drenched in blood, and Wood claims in the documentary that she was barely conscious due to being fed absinthe, and was actually penetrated by Manson during the filming of the scene.

“We had discussed a simulated sex scene, but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real,” Wood said in a harrowing interview for the doc. “I had never agreed to that. 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.”

Wood and Manson began dating when she was just 18 and in the documentary, she claims he groomed her throughout her teenage years before they began dating, and that he was the first adult man she kissed. She even alleges that Manson began to express more interest in Nazism after they began dating, which concerned her as a Jewish woman.

As shown in parts of the documentary, Wood provided an emotional testimony to the California Senate to help pass the Phoenix Act, which was passed into law in 2019 and extended the statute of limitations for domestic violence cases from three years to five years.

Manson has denied the allegations and was dropped by his record label and agents when Wood first named him as her accuser in February 2021.