Last Sunday, the 23rd, the first part of the documentary Phoenix Rising premiered at the Sundance Film Festival . The film tells the life story of actress Evan Rachel Wood and reveals new details about the abuse she suffered during her relationship with Brian Warner , better known as Marilyn Manson .
Rachel Wood was with Manson between 2006 and 2011. The two met when she had just turned 18, while the musician was already 38. According to the actress's testimony in the documentary , the beginning of the abuse committed by Marilyn Manson was during the filming of the music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses" in 2007.
In Evan Rachel Wood's words, she was "coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses" and raped by Manson in front of the cameras. "It wasn't anything like I thought it would be," the actress recounts in the film. "We were doing things that hadn't been explained to me. We had talked about a simulated sex scene, but when the cameras rolled, he started penetrating me for real. I hadn't agreed to that."
“It was complete chaos,” she continues. “I didn’t feel safe. Nobody was protecting me. Filming the video was a very traumatic experience. I felt disgusting and like I had done something shameful, and I could see that the crew was uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do.” The actress marks the traumatic episode as “the first crime” committed against her. “I was essentially raped in front of the cameras,” she says.
Evan Rachel Wood also clarified why she told the press that the sex scenes weren't real at the time of the music video's release. According to the actress, Marilyn Manson had been "quite clear" about how she should describe the experience to the media.
“I should tell people that we had a lot of fun and had a romantic moment, and none of that was true,” she reveals. “But I was afraid of doing something that would upset Brian in some way. The video was just the beginning of the violence that would continue to escalate during the course of our relationship.”
In February 2021, Evan Rachel Wood named Brian Warner as her abuser and detailed a series of physical, sexual, and psychological abuses that the musician allegedly committed against her. Since her account, a number of other victims have reported similar abuse situations, also committed by Brian.
READ ALSO: Marilyn Manson threatened to sexually assault Evan Rachel Wood's 8-year-old son, actress alleges.