Actor Evan Rachel Wood claims Marilyn Manson, whose legal name is Brian Hugh Warner, “essentially raped” her on-camera without her consent. Part one of ‘Phoenix Rising’, HBO’s upcoming two-part documentary about Manson accuser and activist Evan Rachel Wood, premiered on January 23 at the virtual 2022 Sundance Film Festival. She is seen making this claim in this film.

When Wood was 19, the claimed event occurred on the set of Manson’s 2007 music video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses.” Wood is seen wearing Lolita sunglasses and having sex with Manson in the video.

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“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,” Wood recalls in the documentary. 

“I did not feel safe. No one was looking after me. 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 like I had done something shameful, and I could tell that the crew was very uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do,” she added.

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Wood’s mother claims that the day after the shoot, her ex-husband received word from a crew member that Wood was “was out of it, that he [Manson] was giving her absinthe and whatever else,” and that he was forcing her to do things “she cannot consent” to. “I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses. That’s when the first crime was committed against me, and I was essentially raped on-camera.”

“Brian was really clear about how I should discuss the video with the press, how I was supposed to tell people that we had this great romantic time, and none of that was the truth. But I was scared to do anything that would upset Brian in any way,” Wood says of Manson’s use of intimidation to keep her silent about the incident. This was “just the beginning of the violence that would escalate over the course of the relationship.”

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Phoenix Rising is directed by Amy Berg and follows Evan Rachel Wood “as she takes her experience as a survivor of domestic violence to pursue justice, heal generational wounds, and reclaim her story.”  The film follows her claimed violent ex, Marilyn Manson, who is facing various sexual-assault lawsuits that include testimony from Wood and others. In March 2022, HBO will air Phoenix Rising.