Game of Thrones Actress Accuses Marilyn Manson of Physical and Psychological Abuse
Esmé Bianco, the actress best known for playing the role of “Ros” on Game of Thrones and her guest appearance on Puscifer’s Existential Reckoning (2020), has joined the growing chorus of women who allege they suffered abused at the hands of Marilyn Manson.
Bianco’s claims come in the wake of one from Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood on February 1, which has since ignited a wave of similar accusations. Wood said that Manson (born Brian Warner), her former fiancé, “horrifically abused me for years.” While she has implied in the past that Manson abused her, this was the first time she explicitly named the shock rocker. Since then, there’s been a deluge of similar accusations from other women.
Bianco, 38, tells The Cut that she idolized Manson as a teenager and was invited to meet him in 2005 by his then-wife, the burlesque performer Dita Von Teese. She and Manson remained in touch after his marriage to Von Teese ended in 2007, and they would “exchange sometimes-flirty emails,” but Bianco insists their relationship remained platonic until 2009, when the singer asked her to star in the music video for his song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies.” The video shoot, according to the actress, consisted of Manson torturing her for three straight days, denying her clothing and sleep and feeding her a constant diet of cocaine.
Although the video was never released, with Manson purportedly making “constant excuses” as to why, she moved in with him in 2011, justifying his behavior in her own mind and reassuring herself that “We are going to make great art.”
She says the shock rocker “soon began to control every aspect of her life,” dictating “what she could wear… her sleep schedule… and when she could come and go from the apartment.” She would have to call family and friends in secrecy, while hiding in cupboards and closets. He would show one of her sex scenes from Game of Thrones to guests and call her a “whore.” On one occasion, she alleges, Manson “repeatedly cut her torso with a knife.”
The final straw, according to Bianco, was “a month after she moved in, when Manson chased her around the apartment with an ax.” She snuck out while he was asleep.
Much of Bianco’s abuse was witnessed, and in at least one case reportedly photographed by, Manson’s former assistant, Ashley Walters, who has also been vocal about the shock rocker’s mistreatment of women (herself included).
Bianco has alluded to her abuse before, sharing photos of scars Manson left on her back — without naming her victimizer — on Instagram. Like Wood, in 2019 Bianco testified in front of the California Senate Public Safety committee on behalf of the Phoenix Act, which seeks to create exceptions to the statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes in the state of California; like Wood, she did not identify Manson as her abuser at that time out of fear of retaliation.
You can read The Cut‘s entire interview with Bianco here.
Manson has called the previous accusations against him “horrible distortions of reality.” But the fallout has already been tremendous, with the singer being dropped by his label, Loma Vista, and his agency, CAA. He was also fired from television roles on the programs American Gods and Creepshow and by his longtime manager, Tony Ciulla, who dropped his client after 25 years of working together.
Two former Manson collaborators, Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland and Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor, have both spoken out against the shock rocker. Borland called Manson “a bad fucking guy” and asserted that his victims “are speaking the truth,” while Reznor said that he has “been vocal over the years about my dislike of Manson as a person and cut ties with him nearly 25 years ago.” He also denied, not for the first time, a story from Manson’s memoir, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, in which the singer claims that he and Reznor plied two women with alcohol and then took advantage of them once they were heavily inebriated.
Otep frontwoman Otep Shamaya shared an unsettling story about Manson over the weekend, as did singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers. The actor Corey Feldman has also accused Manson of “decades [of] mental and emotional abuse.”
Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager, addressed calls to comment on Manson by saying her relationship with him was strictly business and that she wasn’t privy to his personal life.
On Wednesday, February 3, police reportedly “swarmed” Manson’s home after a friend contacted authorities to say they couldn’t reach the singer and were concerned for his well-being. Although Manson never emerged from his house, a rep for the singer told police he was “fine.”
California State Senator Susan Rubio has requested that the FBI investigate Manson. There has been no word as to whether or not her request has been granted.
