“I’d had too much to drink and didn’t consider how inappropriate or hurtful it might be”: Emmy-nominated actor apologises for having picture taken with Marilyn Manson

Recent Emmy Award nominee Chloë Sevigny has apologised after appearing in a photo alongside Marilyn Manson.

The actor says she’s “truly sorry” after putting a picture of a group that included herself, Manson (real name Brian Hugh Warner) and filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund on her Instagram stories.

The photo was taken at an afterparty following the Prime Time Emmy Awards on September 14, where Sevigny was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for her role in Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.

Some followers were critical of the picture, given the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Warner (he has denied all allegations of wrongdoing).

When one user wrote in a comment to Sevigny, “Why? Just why? You don’t need Manson by your side that’s gross”, the actor issued an in-depth apology as a reply, saying that she had had “too much to drink” and that the photo represented a lapse in judgement.

“I’m truly sorry – you’re absolutely right,” she wrote. “We unexpectedly ran into MM and Jonas in the lobby of a hotel. We’re both fans of Jonas as both a musician and a filmmaker, and in the moment, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’d had too much to drink and didn’t consider how inappropriate or hurtful it might be to be photographed with MM. I deeply regret the lapse in judgement.”

Warner has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, including his former fiancée, Evan Rachel Wood. In 2021, the Westworld actor alleged via Instagram that Warner “horrifically abused me for years”. Warner sued Wood and her friend Ilma Gore for defamation in 2022, but a Los Angeles judge dismissed the claims in Warner’s suit in May 2023. In January 2024, Warner was ordered to pay Wood almost $327,000 to cover Wood’s legal fees. He dropped the suit entirely in November 2024.

In 2022, a lawsuit against Warner was thrown out due to the statute of limitations. A suit filed by Warner’s former personal assistant Ashley Walters, claiming sexual assault and battery, was dismissed as the alleged abuse took place between 2010 and 2011.

Another case – in which Warner’s ex-partner Ashley Morgan Smithline sued the musician for sexual assault, sexual battery and other alleged offences – was dismissed in January 2023. A judge threw it out after Smithline was unable to find new legal representation in time. Smithline later recanted her accusations and said she’d been “manipulated” into making them by Wood.

Also in 2023, Warner settled out of court with two accusers who took legal action against him. Former Game Of Thrones actor Esme Bianco sued him for sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and her representatives later said that she agreed to settle the case so that she could “move on with her life and career”. The other accuser was a Jane Doe, later identified as Bianca Allaine Kyne, who sued him in 2021 claiming the singer raped her in 2011.

The allegations against Warner were the subject of a TV documentary, Unmasked, which aired in the UK on Channel 4 earlier this year. Wood and Kyne were interviewed for the programme. In June, a planned Marilyn Manson concert in Brighton was cancelled following a complaint from the head of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council.