Evan Rachel Wood says staying with Marilyn Manson “felt like a death sentence”

Evan Rachel Wood has revealed more details about her previous relationship with Marilyn Manson, saying it “felt like a death sentence”.

While appearing as a guest on the Navigating Narcissism podcast, the Westworld actor opened up about the torment she suffered at the hands of Manson, her ex-fiance – real name Brian Warner– and how her role on the sci-fi show inspired her to discuss the abusive relationship.

“When I realised what a physical impact it was having on me, that was a breaking point, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay quiet. I realised my silence was keeping me really sick,” Wood told Navigating Narcissim host Dr. Ramani.

She recalled how she managed to free herself from Manson, claiming it to be a case of life or death. The actress said: “There was a moment where I was like, ‘I’m so afraid of this person, I’ve been threatened so many times, either with blackmail or with force and if I stay here because I’m too scared to leave, I feel like I’m dead anyway’.

“Staying felt like a death sentence, leaving also felt terrifying because something could happen to me or he could come after me. I felt like either way I feel dead so I may as well try to escape.”

Wood went into detail on what living with the singer was like and how he would “isolate” her from people for days.

“You and him and a mound of cocaine and he would keep you up and stay awake just berating you, telling you everything that was wrong with the world and the people around you, everything you were doing wrong, all the ways you were failing him and failing yourself, the suspicions he had towards you, he would start wrecking the house,” she recalled.

She continued: “It was this non-stop onslaught of words and monologues, this constant stream of negativity that I felt like I couldn’t escape and couldn’t stop, it’s where the brainwashing and abuse started taking place. He wouldn’t stop until you gave in or started agreeing with everything he was saying or making the phone calls he wanted you to make.”

Wood also claimed that the singer coerced her into splitting with her mother by allegedly taking notes on her conversations with her mum. She said that this was a way to further attempt to isolate her.

She also claimed that Manson demanded that she kick out her best friend from her house and had sent one of his “flying monkeys” – his assistant – with her to record the interaction as proof that the actor did what he told her to do.

Elsewhere in the interview, Wood revealed how playing the character Dolores Abernathy on Westworld inspired her to open up about her experiences. “It was the first time I really let myself go back and feel certain things because I wasn’t able to cry about it until seven years after,” she said.

“Then suddenly I’m doing these scenes where you’ve got to go there and it gave me permission and a buffer so I could allow myself in and it just opened up Pandora’s Box,” she added. “There’s a scene where my character is programmed and she can’t pull triggers of any guns, she can’t defend herself and then there’s a scene where she finally does and she overrides her programming… that scene was a big moment for me, having to act the feeling of being held back and then breaking through it.

“I told people on set just in case I got triggered or something so I started opening up to people… doing the show unlocked a lot of things and got me talking about it. I met other survivors on that show.”

Wood made allegations against Manson back in 2021, where she accused him of grooming, abuse and manipulation.

“He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,” she claimed in an Instagram post. “I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”

Manson has denied all claims and allegations against him.

NME has reached out to representatives of Manson for comment.

While a spokesperson for Manson had not responded to NME‘s request for comment at the time of publication, a close source to the singer said that most of the “false claims” made by Wood in her interview “have already been disputed within Brian’s ongoing lawsuit against her”, and that the “new tales she is spinning” will likely be added to that case as well.

Previous court filings from the Declaration of Warner and Ashley Smithline (an alleged victim of Manson who recanted her allegations) show that Warner said that during a period between 2006 and 2010 he and Wood “were engaged to be married and carried on a loving and consensual relationship” and that he “never abused, assaulted, raped, or threatened”, calling such accusations “unequivocally false”.

In Smithline’s declaration discussing the “flying monkeys”, she argued that she “was manipulated by Ms. Wood, Ms. Gore, Ms. Bianco, and Mr. Ellwanger to spread publicly false accusations of abuse against Mr. Warner”.

The legal battle between the actor and the singer is currently ongoing. Earlier this year, a US judge dismissed key sections of Manson‘s defamation case against Wood.

Manson, filed a defamation lawsuit against Wood in March 2022 after she accused him of grooming, manipulation and “horrific abuse”.

Part of the lawsuit claimed that Manson’s former fiancee Wood and Illma Gore — the latter of whom was described as Wood’s “on-again, off-again romantic partner” in the lawsuit — “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse against Warner”.

On May 9, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa A. Beaudet rejected Manson’s claims that Wood pressured “multiple women to make false accusations” against him and fabricated an FBI letter to back up her allegations (via Los Angeles Times).

Beaudet also dismissed a section that alleged Wood and Gore used a checklist for other women to use to make claims of abuse.

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