The Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco is the last woman to file allegations of physical and psychological abuse against Marilyn Manson, whom the actress dated in 2011.
After hinting that she was also a Manson survivor in an Instagram post last week – joining actress Evan Rachel Wood and at least five other women – Bianco detailed the cut the abuse Manson allegedly inflicted on her during the few months she lived with the shock rocker, including accusations that Manson inflicted wounds such as cuts and bruises that left permanent scars on her body.
On one occasion, Bianco claims that Manson cut his torso with a knife. “I just remember lying there, and I didn’t fight it,” Bianco told Cut. “It was a kind of drop of water in which I lost all sense of hope and security.”
Bianco, a fan of Manson’s music growing up, met the singer in 2009, when she was cast in an unprecedented Manson music video; she was friends with Manson’s then wife, Dita Von Teese, across the burlesque world, but Manson and Bianco’s relationship didn’t start until two years later, after Manson’s divorce.
Briton Bianco returned to the United States in 2011 to star in the Lewis Carroll-inspired Manson film Phantasmagoria, and his visa at the time depended on this project; months later, when Bianco struggled to break up with Manson, she feared the singer would sabotage his visa as retribution.
During Bianco’s time living with Manson in 2011 – which lasted a month before she ran away one night while Manson was sleeping – the first episode of The Game of Thrones debuted, during which Bianco’s prostitute character appeared in a sex scene. Bianco said Manson repeated the guest sex scene over and over on a projector, humiliating her.
“I think I would have made excuses for him,” said Bianco the cut. “I was in survival mode at that point, and my brain taught me to be small and nice.”
Bianco also detailed and echoed what many other Manson accusers previously claimed: Manson was authoritative and often told women that he was in relationships with what to wear (for Bianco, lingerie and short pencil dresses), when to sleep, and what eat. “I basically felt like a prisoner,” said Bianco. “I came and went at will. Who I spoke to was totally controlled by him. I called my family hidden in the closet. “
The “breaking point” for Bianco came when Manson once chased her with an ax; Manson’s assistant at the time corroborated the incident for the cut. Bianco suffered a panic attack from that incident and left Manson shortly thereafter. She broke up with him by email a month later, in the summer of 2011.
Almost a decade later, Bianco told Cut that she still suffers from PTSD because of the few months she lived with Manson. In 2019, Bianco and Wood met and began to defend the Phoenix Act, which extended California’s statute of limitations to domestic violence by five years. Like Wood, Bianco spoke about his abuse of the California Senate, although she did not mention Manson at the time. The Phoenix Act passed in 2020.
“My attacker’s name is Brian Warner, also known worldwide as Marilyn Manson,” wrote Wood on Instagram last week. “He started to prepare me when I was a teenager and he abused me terribly for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated until submission. I got tired of living in fear of retaliation, slander or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and summon the many industries that enabled him before he ruined more lives. I stay with the many victims who will no longer be silent. “
Wood has long talked about her relationship with an abusive partner, but her statement marked the first time she named Warner as her alleged abuser. At least five other women have filed similar charges against Manson.
Warner addressed the charges last week after the initial series of charges. “Obviously, my art and my life have always been controversial magnets, but these recent statements about me are horrible distortions of reality.” Warner wrote on Instagram. “My intimate relationships have always been entirely consensual with like-minded partners. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth. “
In the wake of the accusations, Warner’s current label, Loma Vista Recordings, issued a statement withdrawing the artist from the label. “In light of the disturbing allegations by Evan Rachel Wood and other women naming Marilyn Manson as her abuser, Loma Vista will no longer promote her current album, with immediate effect,” said the label. “Due to these worrying developments, we have also decided not to work with Marilyn Manson on any future projects.” AMC Networks, owner of the Shudder network that was created to show Warner as an actor in the next Freak show anthology, said Vanity Fair that they wouldn’t show the segment and Warner’s longtime entrepreneur Tony Ciulla abandoned him as a customer after 26 years.
Attempts to reach Manson were unsuccessful.