CONTENT WARNING: This article deals with domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence. HBO’s Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood has spent many years speaking out for victims of sexual abuse. In 2018 she testified before the House Judiciary Committee to support expanding the Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights and in 2020 she spoke again in front of California Senate.
Wood spoke passionately and eloquently about her own experience of sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, detailing the harrowing years she spent being abused as well as detailing the abuse itself.
She first went public with that abuse in 2016 in an interview with Rolling Stone, where she specifically said,“Yes. I’ve been raped. By a significant other while we were together.” However she did not name her abuser at that time, nor did she do so in 2018 or 2020.
Wood has finally confirmed that the man she says raped, tortured, and abused her was Brian Warner, better known to the world as shock rocker Marilyn Manson in an instagram post.
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Wood also cross-posted several other allegations of abuse and violence other women who were involved with Warner over the years who are now coming forward: Ashley Walters, Sarah McNiely, Gabriella, and Ashley Lindsay Morgan.
In 2017 she explained why she was refusing to name her abuser in a 15 minute video that is no longer available. Wood said, “People are wondering why more women didn’t come forward sooner, and why in a lot of these cases one woman will come out or multiple women will come out and then the floodgates will open. They do not feel safe enough to do so, period. And I am guilty of this as well because I have not named my abusers.” She went on to say, “They were very powerful, very rich, very entitled, very narcissistic white men.”
She added, “And I haven’t named my abusers for a number of reasons. One. I’m one person against some very powerful people. Two. Money and time and re-traumatizing yourself. To go after the person that assaulted you takes quite a toll. It is a terrifying thing to have to go through, mainly because you are at risk of not being believed, your career being hurt, being drained of your finances, because it costs a lot of money to file a lawsuit and go to court with somebody. Especially if all you have is your word against theirs and especially if these are very powerful people.”
In her 2018 testimony the actress emphasized, “My experience with domestic violence was this: Toxic mental, physical, and sexual abuse which started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life, severe gaslighting and brainwashing, waking up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body. And the worst part, sick rituals of binding me up by my hands and feet to be mentally and physically tortured until my abuser felt I had proven my love for them.”
She went on to say, “The aftermath of rape is a huge part of the conversation that needs much more attention, and in this case I can speak from my own experiences. So often we think of these assaults as no more than a few minutes of awfulness, But these scars last a lifetime.”
Wood also testified about the abuse in April of 2020, and described the grooming, isolation, and abuse that she says she was subjected to. A pattern followed in Warner’s relationships with his other victims.
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While Warner denies the allegations, following this becoming public, Loma Vista, CAA and STARZ series American Gods recording has dropped Manson from their roster.
If you, or someone you know, is the victim of sexual or domestic abuse call, 800.799.SAFE.
