A lawyer for Marilyn Manson has denied the allegations made by Evan Rachel Wood against the disgraced shock rocker in her new documentary, Phoenix Rising.
In the film, Wood accuses Manson, born Brian Warner, of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and details how he allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her while filming the video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses.”
“I was essentially raped on-camera,” Wood says in the doc, according to People.
In a statement obtained by E! News and Pitchfork, Warner’s lawyer Howard King calls Wood’s allegations “false” and an “imaginative retelling.”
“Evan was not only fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot but also heavily involved in weeks of pre-production planning and days of post-production editing of the final cut,” the statement reads. “The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with multiple takes using different angles and several long breaks in between camera setups. Brian did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.”
Wood, who previously spoke for several years about her experience with domestic violence, publicly named Warner as her abuser in a February 2021 social media post. At the time, Warner denied allegations as “horrible distortions of reality.”
Following Wood’s post, more women came forward with allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse against Warner, including actor Esmé Bianco, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, and Warner’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, all of whom filed lawsuits against him. Through lawyers, Warner has denied the allegations.
The first installment of the two-part Phoenix Rising premiered over the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. The whole doc is set to debut on HBO in March.
For anyone affected by abuse and needing support, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 1-866-331-9474.
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