Evan Rachel Wood Says Marilyn Manson Tortured Her With a Nazi Whip When She Tried to Leave
In its second installment, Amy Berg’s Evan Rachel Wood documentary Phoenix Rising continues to strike a delicate balance. As with Part One, the revelations that the actress and activist shares about her alleged grooming and abuse by rock singer Marilyn Manson are devastating. Even so, the doc remains a heartening and affirming exploration of the bravery it took for Wood and her fellow survivors to speak out.
In February of 2021, Evan Rachel Wood publicly identified Manson (legal name Brian Warner) as the abuser she’d described in her gutting 2018 testimony before Congress about surviving sexual assault. The two were in a relationship from 2006 to 2011; after Wood named Warner as her abuser last year, four additional women came forward to accuse the singer of abuse and filed civil lawsuits against him.
Warner, who remains under investigation by local authorities but has yet to face charges, did not respond to any specific allegations in the documentary but has denied “any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anyone.” He has also sued her for defamation.