Evan Rachel Wood has given an in-depth interview about what she has learned about narcissism following her high-profile relationship with Marilyn Manson.
Actor and singer Wood alleged in 2021 that she was “groomed” as a teenager by Manson, before he “horrifically abused’ and “brainwashed” her.
Manson – real name Brian Warner – has always denied the allegations and in 2022 he sued Wood for defamation in the wake of her documentary Phoenix Rising in which she described the alleged abuse.
Manson's lawsuit alleged that Wood and associate Illma Gore hacked into Manson's computers and social media accounts, manufactured evidence that he was emailing illicit pornography, impersonated an FBI agent, provided checklists of alleged crimes to prospective accusers, and knowingly made false statements and defamatory claims.
He later dropped that suit and agreed to pay Wood's legal fees.
In January of this year, a Los Angeles judge reinstated a lawsuit filed against Manson by his former assistant Ashley Walters. It had previously been dismissed as it exceeded the maximum time period for legal proceedings to be initiated, but a change in the law allowed the case to be revived and it is ongoing.
In a new interview with Andrew Gold, which can be viewed in full below, Wood is asked about her previous assertion that she believed Manson had "studied" manipulation.
Asked what led her to believe this, Wood says: "If you take a wander in his library ... he had a lot of books on cults and a lot of books on mind control and manipulation. He also studied Scientology and things like that as well.
"Cults have different names and different styles but ultimately they're the same tactics. I think he was very, very well-versed in these tactics.
"He also made it very clear that he would retaliate against anybody that went against him or, in his words 'betrayed' him in any way. And a betrayal would be to expose him. I think he was also very well-versed on what to do if that ever happened and how he would retaliate.
Asked if she believed Manson to be a "psychopathic narcissist, she adds: "I think so, yeah. I think there was a time when I wanted to believe that there were maybe still good times and that we had just had a few bad times. But the more I started to read the stories that were popping up online, the more people that contacted me and told me their stories, there was just no way to think otherwise."
In the wake of the alleged ordeal, Wood has sought trauma therapy and has learned a lot about how to recognise narcissistic traits in people, including the slipping of the mask.
On Manson, she says: "Really the thing that scared me the most was when I saw the mask go on. That's when I really knew.
"He was about to go do an interview and he was just on a tirade. One of, I call them his narcissistic rants, of just berating everybody. Whenever he had to get ready for some sort of event or interview when he had to put his persona, makeup and everything on – it was guaranteed that it was going to be a bad night for everybody.
"I locked myself in the bathroom. He was going off and he would wreck things. He would wreck the house and he would yell at people. I came out right before he was about to go on and he was just ... this darkness, these dark eyes. And you saw him slip into the Marilyn Manson persona and then he went out and he was doing that calm, well-spoken Marilyn Manson thing.
"And that's when I realised. That's when you go back and you think about every interview that he's done in that persona. You think 'Oh my God'. What was going on behind the scenes? Was it ever real? Because I just saw you put that face on and I know that's not you. I know that face only goes on when the cameras are rolling or when you're manipulating somebody.
"It blew my mind and I didn't know what to call that until I was learning about narcissism and psychopathy and they talk about the mask and when you see the mask slip. That's exactly what it felt like."
Elsewhere in the interview, Wood discusses The Phoenix Act which she co-authored with California Senator Susan Rubio to extend the statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes.
