Actress Evan Rachel Wood received an Emmy nomination for her role in “Mildred Pierce” — but away from the spotlight, she says she lived in …
Actress Evan Rachel Wood received an Emmy nomination for her role in “Mildred Pierce” — but away from the spotlight, she says she lived in a constant nightmare. In the second half of “ Phoenix Rising ” — a two-part documentary set to air on HBO, beginning March 15, that’s directed by Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg — Wood,34, reveals she realized she was pregnant with the baby of her alleged abuser, Marilyn Manson, while working on that 2011 miniseries. “From the beginning of our relationship, he always had an issue with whatever birth control I was using — and I went through, like, every type to see which one he liked, and he didn’t like any of them, so essentially he didn’t want me using birth control,” Wood says in the film, whose first half premiered during the Sundance Film Festival in January. She claims that Manson refused to wear a condom, and using spermicides after intercourse didn’t work. Wood decided to terminate the pregnancy — and was shocked when Manson demanded she cook him a meal directly after the abortion. “He flew out for the abortion,” Wood says on camera. “The second it was over it was like, ‘Make me dinner.’ And I remember being like, ‘I’m supposed to be resting — my body has gone through this trauma… there’s aftermath here.’ And he didn’t care.” The incident nearly drove her to end her own life. At a later, unspecified, date, she says she tried to kill herself. “I went into the bathroom and I took [a] glass and I shattered it on the floor and just started digging at my wrists as hard as I could,” Wood tells her friend, the artist and activist Illma Gore. While Wood’s suicide attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, it was a turning point, she says in the film. “When I woke up, I felt different. I feel like whoever I was went to sleep and didn’t wake up that night, and this new version woke up and had to start rebuilding her life. I called my mom and I said, ‘I just tried to kill myself, and I need to go to a hospital, like, immediately.’ ” The “Westworld” actress first identified 53-year-old Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, as her alleged abuser last February, after previously referring to a traumatic relationship with an anonymous man in the press.
