US actress Evan Rachel Wood has accused rock singer Marilyn Manson of raping him during a music video shoot. Wood made the allegations in a documentary that premiered at the US Sundance Film Festival on Sunday.
Accordingly, a “simulated sex scene” for the video for the 2007 hit single “Heart-Shaped Glasses” had been agreed. “But as soon as the cameras started rolling, he started really penetrating me,” Wood said.
“I never agreed to that,” she said. Wood began dating Manson in 2006. She was 18 at the time and he was 37. Manson said he was inspired to create Heart-Shaped Glasses when he saw Wood wearing the glasses featured on the famous Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita movie poster.
She was “forced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses,” Wood said in the documentary. “I was basically raped on camera.” According to the documentary, Manson – whose real name is Brian Warner – later pressured Wood to tell journalists that there was no real sex during the making of the video.
Manson’s attorney, Howard King, denied the allegation in a statement to AFP. “Of all the false claims Evan Rachel Wood has made about Brian Warner, her imaginative retelling of the making of the ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’ music video 15 years ago is the boldest and most easily disproved due to the presence of multiple witnesses,” wrote he. “The simulated sex scene was shot for several hours, with multiple takes from different angles and multiple long pauses between camera takes.” His client “did not have sex with Evan on set and she knows that’s the truth.”
Manson has been accused of sexual abuse by several women, including Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco. Los Angeles Police Department confirmed last year that they were investigating allegations of domestic violence against the singer. Manson had separated from his record company Loma Vista Recordings and his agency CAA after the allegations became known. He continues to record, however, and was featured on Kanye West’s album Donda last year.
The HBO documentary Phoenix Rising chronicles the efforts of Wood and other sexual assault survivors to extend the statute of limitations for sex crimes to give women more time to seek justice after abuse. The Sundance Film Festival, which is taking place online again this year due to the corona pandemic, will run until January 30th.