(Update: Feb 1. 2021 – Wood publicly named Marilyn Manson as her abuser.) Video footage of Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood testifying in front of California state senators last year to create the Phoenix Act has resurfaced. The footage shows Wood detailing a very abusive relationship she had when she was eighteen years old. A lot of evidence points to her abuser being shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Warning: The following story details domestic abuse.
Wood testified on April 23rd, 2019, in front of the California Senate Public Safety Committee to endorse the passing of the Phoenix Act. The Act would extended the statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes in California from three to ten years under specific circumstances. Circumstances include multiple accusers coming forward with evidence against a specific abuser or the discovery of new audio or video recordings, photos, or text messages that charge the abuser. The footage was available then, but has resurfaced today on MetalSucks.
Wood's testimony detailed being mentally and physically tortured by an older man when she was 18-years-old. Wood never named her abusing, publicly saying the abuser "threatened to kill her or have her killed" according to a deleted tweet from Wood.
But, it was very public knowledge that Wood began dating Marilyn Manson in 2006 when she was 18 and he was 36. As MetalSucks points out, Manson was still married to Dita Von Teese at the time. They eventually got engaged, and in 2009, Wood appeared in Manson's music video for the song “Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand).”
She talked more positively about Manson in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview saying “I met somebody that promised freedom and expression and no judgments,” she says. “And I was craving danger and excitement. I looked at my mother one day and said, ‘Mom, I’m gonna get on this tour bus for eight months and see the world and have a crazy journey and find myself, and if people aren’t OK with that, I’m sorry, but I can’t live my life for other people.’ ”
During her testimony in front of California state senators, she would detail how her abuser would keep her up with drugs and "he would sometimes force me to partake in acts of fear, pain, torture, and humiliation, which he would videotape and which I felt powerless to stop."
She said she would try to leave, but he would threaten to hurt himself. "I mustered the courage to leave several times, but he would call my house incessantly and threaten to kill himself. On one occasion, I returned to try and defuse the situation, he cornered me in our bedroom, and asked me to kneel. Then he tied me up by my hands and feet. Once I was restrained he beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand. To him it was a way for me to prove my loyalty. The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day. The worst part was I still felt it was somehow my fault. Society had told me: "I should just leave when someone hits me," but this was so much more complicated and so much scarier than anything had ever prepared me for. I didn't know what to call it."
In a 2009 interview with Spin, Marilyn Manson freely admitted to doing this.
It sounds like the period after you and Evan Rachel Wood broke up was really tough. What was your lowest point?
I sing about it on “Into the Fire.” I say, “If you want to hit bottom, don’t bother trying to take me with you.” My lowest point was Christmas Day 2008, because I didn’t speak to my family. My walls were covered in scrawlings of the lyrics and cocaine bags nailed to the wall. And I did have an experience where I was struggling to deal with being alone and being forsaken and being betrayed by putting your trust in one person, and making the mistake of that being the wrong person. And that’s a mistake that everyone can relate to. I made the mistake of trying to, desperately, grasp on and save that and own it. And every time I called her that day — I called 158 times — I took a razorblade and I cut myself on my face or on my hands.
I look back and it was a really stupid thing to do. This was intentional, this was a scarification, and this was like a tattoo. I wanted to show her the pain she put me through. It was like, “I want you to physically see what you’ve done.” It sounds made up but it’s completely true and I don’t give a shit if people believe it or not. I’ve got the scars to prove it. I didn’t want people to ask me every time I did an interview, “Oh, is this record about your relationship with your ex-girlfriend?” But that damage is part of it, and the song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in The Movies” is about my fantasies. I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer.
At the time of the testimony, there was little coverage, but in 2018, one person had no problem naming Evan Rachel Wood's abuser, and that was Patricia Arquette. Update: Feb 1. 2021 – Wood publicly named Marilyn Manson as her abuser.
Marilyn Manson Cutting himself 158 x's when he called Evan Rachel Wood after breakup it's not ❤️ it's abuse.. @SPIN
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) March 1, 2018
Why the hell was this ok? Marilyn Manson Says He Wants To Beat Evan Rachel Wood With A Sledgehammer https://t.co/CZe4pegOb5?amp=1
— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) March 1, 2018
A Twitter account popped up, pointing out the similarities in Wood's testimony and Manson's lyrics for the song "Blood Honey."
— Marilyn Manson Abuse (@MMansonAbuse) March 2, 2018
In 2018, Manson was accused of abuse by actress Charlene Yi on a TV show set. That same year, Manson parted ways with longtime bassist Jeordie "Twiggy Ramirez". White was accused by his ex-girlfriend Jessicka Adams of sexual assault in late 2017.
Here is a transcript of her testimony. The video is at the bottom. Update: Feb 1. 2021 – Wood publicly named Marilyn Manson as her abuser. A former Manson tour manager has backed her claims.
When I was a teenager, I met a Man.
Before meeting him, I only had two long term relationships in my high school years—with teenage boys, very close to my age.
He and I became fast friends, which I was grateful for, because at the time I didn't have many.
I looked up to him in many ways and felt special to be chosen. I felt like we had a unique bond. I had no intention of it turning into something romantic.
When it eventually did, I wasn't sure how to stop it. He had a certain charisma and power over everyone he came in contact with, and I quickly surrendered to his charms. In the beginning, he treated me like a princess. I saw his temper directed at other people, but I wrote it off to him just being complicated and misunderstood. I felt bad for him. I never thought he would hurt me. I trusted him completely. He was my mentor, my savior, and my best friend. He would tell me, 'it was us against the world,' and I believed him. I thought I had fallen deeply in love and I thought it was my duty to keep my partner happy at all costs.
I felt bad for him. I never thought he would hurt me. I trusted him completely.
I was smart, but a smart 18-year-old is still an 18-year-old, and I was completely naive to the red flags he was showing me since the day we met. It wasn't until much later that I realized everything he had told me was a lie and part of what is called 'The Grooming Process.'
He moved very fast in the relationship, asking me to move in with him almost immediately.
I was unsure of this decision, but threw caution to the wind, as he made it seem so romantic.
He had also hidden a terrible drug and alcohol problem from me.
Soon it was clear, there was a certain way he wanted me to look, otherwise I would endure name calling and ridicule.
He started to cut me off from my close friends and family, one by one, by exhibiting rage in some form or another when I was in contact with them.
The only way I knew how to calm him was to give him what he wanted, which was me, all to himself, in total isolation.
He had bouts of extreme jealousy, which would often result in him wrecking our home, cornering me in a room, and threatening me.
I was told 'no one would ever love me like him,' 'no one would want me if I left him,' and 'he would kill anyone who touched me.'
His demands became unreachable, and nothing I did was ever good enough. I would run around the house all day trying to solve the 'problems,' to fix whatever made him mad, but it only caused more abuse. I ended up adopting the persona of the person he wanted me to be and losing myself completely. It became my new normal. I did this for survival, to avoid an explosion. I became numb and went along with whatever he wanted me to, managing to smile and drowning in gallows humor. Years later, my therapist would identify some of my behavior as Stockholm Syndrome.
I witnessed my abuser threatening people with force, or legal action, if he worried they would expose him in any way. He bragged about being able to have people killed because he was allegedly friends with multiple gangs, and I watched him illegally collect data on people that he could use as blackmail.
By the time I realized I was in a bad situation, I felt completely trapped and terrified for my life.
He gifted me a cell phone, which I found out he was monitoring. He downloaded spyware onto my computer and hacked into my emails and social media accounts, so I could not reach out for help. When my friends and family tried to intervene, I swiftly told them to leave and that I was fine, because I was afraid of what he would do.
He broke me down through means of starvation, sleep deprivation, and threats against my life, sometimes with deadly weapons, which would result in me having severe panic attacks where I was unable to breathe or stop shaking.
By the time I realized I was in a bad situation, I felt completely trapped and terrified for my life.
If I tried to sleep, he would throw things at me, or instruct me to do drugs, which would disorient me, and keep me awake, sometimes for days. Once I was weakened by no sleep and little food, he would sometimes force me to partake in acts of fear, pain, torture, and humiliation, which he would videotape and which I felt powerless to stop.
Only after the acts were done, was I allowed to sleep. In some of these tapes he can be heard threatening to kill me, threatening my friends, or threatening to kill members of my family.
He also threatened to leak parts of the footage, or photographs he had taken, as a way to keep me quiet.
I mustered the courage to leave several times, but he would call my house incessantly and threaten to kill himself. On one occasion, I returned to try and defuse the situation, he cornered me in our bedroom, and asked me to kneel. Then he tied me up by my hands and feet. Once I was restrained he beat me and shocked sensitive parts of my body with a torture device called a violet wand. To him it was a way for me to prove my loyalty. The pain was excruciating. It felt like I left my body and a part of me died that day. The worst part was I still felt it was somehow my fault. Society had told me: "I should just leave when someone hits me," but this was so much more complicated and so much scarier than anything had ever prepared me for. I didn't know what to call it.
After this incident, I continued to play along with whatever he wanted, enduring constant, daily abuse, and, on occasion, rape, until I found a way to escape safely.
Once I was finally out of my abuser's control, I did whatever I could to feel safe, which meant putting time and space between me, him, and the abuse. The shame is still overwhelming.
It's taken all of my strength to speak publicly and to pursue this. The fear of being judged by society is debilitating and the fear of retaliation from my abuser is paralyzing. By speaking to you today and every day, I put myself at risk, as I have no protection. I have had to go through intense therapy to even fully understand what has happened to me. I have been diagnosed with complex PTSD, including disassociation, panic attacks, night terrors, agoraphobia, impulse control, chronic pain in my body, among other symptoms.
I am still in the process of working through this.
The final push into creating the Phoenix Act was the crushing realization, years later, that he had done this to several people, and it was very likely there were more victims. I tried to take my evidence to the state, through a lawyer, in an attempt to stop this from happening to anyone else.
I have lived with the silence and shame for too long and it has been unbearable.
My evidence, which is vast and includes photographs and video, not just reliant on memory, can not be viewed by the state because the Statute of Limitations on my case has run out.
I have lived with the silence and shame for too long and it has been unbearable. It has taken years from my life because I was too afraid to tell anyone. I know that this bill will not affect my case, but I urge you to vote yes on the Phoenix Act to create a cushion for victims to leave their dangerous situations, get the help they need, and come back from their trauma, in order to pursue justice and stop serial abusers as long as they have undeniable evidence. We do not wish to create new laws or harsher punishments, only more time if the evidence meets the criteria we are putting forward. Thank you for your time and for hearing us today.
