Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco has accused Marilyn Manson of cutting her repeatedly with a knife, chasing her with an ax and treating her ‘like a prisoner’ when they lived together for about two months in 2011.
Bianco, 38, aired her allegations in a bombshell interview with The Cut published Wednesday, joining at least 11 other women who have come forward this month to accuse Manson, 52, of physical and sexual abuse.
The British actress, who is best known for playing a sex worker named Ros in the early seasons of Game Of Thrones, said her relationship with Manson, whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner, began about 12 years ago in 2009, while she was married to another man.
The pair had a long-distance affair for about two years before he asked her to move to Los Angeles to live with him in March 2011, Bianco said. She obliged, leaving her home in London and troubled marriage behind for Manson’s West Hollywood apartment.
There was a brief honeymoon period, Bianco said, before Manson devolved into a tyrant who controlled her every move – telling her what to wear, when to sleep and where she could go.
‘I basically felt like a prisoner,’ she told The Cut. ‘I came and went at his pleasure. Who I spoke to was completely controlled by him.’
People who witnessed Bianco and Manson’s relationship described his alleged angry outbursts to The Cut and said they frequently noticed bruises and gashes on her.
Bianco also told of how Manson humiliated her by playing her sex scenes from Game of Thrones in front of his entourage. One source recalled Manson saying: ‘That’s my girlfriend, she’s a wh**e. Look, her t*ts are out.’
A lawyer for Manson did not return The Cut’s request for comment about Bianco’s claims, the outlet said. Last week the singer vehemently denied earlier abuse allegations levied against him, calling them ‘horrible distortions of reality’.
Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco has accused Marilyn Manson (pictured together in 2009) of cutting her repeatedly with a knife, chasing her with an ax and treating her ‘like a prisoner’ when they lived together for about two months in 2011
Bianco, 38, aired her allegations in an interview with The Cut published Wednesday, joining at least 11 other women who have come forward this month to accuse Manson, 52, of physical and sexual abuse. Bianco is pictured at the Season 8 premiere of Game of Thrones in 2019
Bianco portrayed a sex worker named Ros (pictured) in the early seasons of Game Of Thrones
Bianco said she idolized Manson when she was a teenager in the late 90s, plastering posters of him on his wall and listening to his albums on repeat.
The pair met for the first time in 2005 through his then-fiancée Dita Von Teese, whom Bianco knew because they were both Burlesque dancers.
Bianco said she was star-struck by Manson, and visited the home he shared with Von Teese in Los Angeles multiple times before their marriage fell apart in 2007.
After Von Teese and Manson split, he kept in touch with Bianco, who got married herself in 2008.
Bianco said her relationship with Manson was flirty but platonic up until 2009, when he asked her to star in the music video for his song I Want to Kill You Like They Do In The Movies.
Manson explained the premise of the video in emails reviewed by The Cut, saying that it would involve him ‘kidnapping’ her.
‘I need to have a victim/lover,’ he wrote. ‘You are gonna have to pretend to like being manhandled by me. Sorry.’
Bianco, then 26, agreed to the role and flew to Los Angeles, where she said she spent three days with Manson, wearing only lingerie and consuming cocaine instead of food.
Manson recorded the video on a flip phone, Bianco said. She recalled how her perception of what was real and what was acting dissolved as Manson lost his temper and became violent with her.
She said he tied her up with cables and lashed her with a whip before pressing a vibrating sex toy into her wounds.
Bianco said she was terrified but justified Manson’s behavior by telling herself: ‘It’s just Manson being theatrical. We are going to make great art.’
Manson never ended up released the music video, and Bianco said he refused to show her any of the footage.
Bianco and Manson are pictured together at the XFM Rock Show in London in 2009 – the same year she said their affair began after she agreed to be in one of his music videos
Bianco shared this photo on Instagram of wounds she said she sustained when Manson whipped her while filming the video for his song I Want to Kill You Like They Do In The Movies
Bianco said her affair with Manson bloomed after she returned home to London, and her fledgling marriage, and Manson began showering her with attention and telling her they were soul mates.
She said Manson would pay for her to fly to Los Angeles and traveled to see her in London. Their visits often ended with her covered in bruises, she said, claiming that he would bite her without consent during sex.
The relationship escalated in March 2011 when Manson asked Bianco to move to Los Angeles and promised to help get her a US visa.
Bianco jumped at the opportunity, as she had just finished shooting the first season of Game of Thrones and was eager to move on to bigger acting roles.
But she would soon come to regret the decision, as Manson assumed control of even the most basic aspects of her life, she said.
Bianco said she drank heavily during the two months she lived with Manson, using alcohol as a coping mechanism.
One of her most disturbing memories was a time when she said Manson repeatedly cut her torso with a knife.
‘I just remember laying there, and I didn’t fight it,’ she said. ‘It was kind of this final-straw moment where I had lost all sense of hope and safety.’
The Cut reported that Manson sent a photo of the cuts to a bandmate and to his personal assistant, Ashley Walters, with the subject line: ‘See what happens?’
Bianco provided the outlet with emails, text messages and photos of her time with Manson to back up her claims.
She mentioned her cuts and bruises in one message she sent to Manson, writing: ‘Everytime I move they hurt so good thinking of you.’
Looking back at that message, Bianco said: ‘Now, when I think about that, I’m so ashamed. I was desperately trying to please him and to keep myself out of trouble.’
Bianco said she reached her breaking point in May 2011 after Manson chased her around the apartment with an ax. Walters, Manson’s personal assistant at the time, told The Cut that she witnessed that incident.
Bianco said she began looking for her own apartment in secret and then fled from Manson’s home while he was sleeping one day in June.
She said she initially told herself the pair were taking a break, but then broke up with Manson over email a month later.
‘I had so little dignity left,’ she said. ‘I think that something inside me was just like, Have some sort of respect for yourself.’
Bianco identified herself as an abuse survivor publicly for the first time in 2019 when she testified in front of the California Assembly about reforming domestic violence laws. She did not mention Manson by name at the time but shared this photo of herself during the abusive relationship
Bianco (pictured in 2015) argued that the latest allegations against Manson shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, given his history of violent comments about women. ‘He’s told the world time and time again: “This is who I am,”‘ she said. ‘He hid in plain sight’
Eight years later, Bianco identified herself as an abuse survivor publicly for the first time in 2019 when she testified in front of the California Assembly about reforming domestic violence laws.
She said she took up the cause after hearing fellow actress Evan Rachel Wood testify before Congress in 2018 about the abuse she claimed to have experienced at Manson’s hands – without naming him directly.
Bianco and Wood teamed up to advocate for the Phoenix Act, which extended California’s statute of limitations on reporting domestic violence offenses from three years to five.
This week’s interview with The Cut marked the first time that Bianco publicly named Manson as her abuser – days after Wood published an Instagram post identifying Manson as the abuser she had testified about two years earlier.
Wood also reposted allegations against Manson from four other women who accused him of rape and sexual and psychological abuse, as well as druggings, intimidation, violence and death threats.
Evan Rachel Wood (pictured) was among the first to publicly accuse Manson of abuse in an Instagram post on February 2 where she claimed he starting ‘grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years’
Bianco argued that the latest allegations against Manson shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, given his history of violent comments about women.
‘He’s told the world time and time again: “This is who I am,”‘ she said. ‘He hid in plain sight.
‘He’s not a misunderstood artist. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life.’
Manson defended himself from allegations by Wood and others in a statement on February 1.
‘Obviously, my life and my art have long been magnets for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,’ he said.
‘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.’
Industry insiders have sought to distance themselves from the controversial rocker with his record label, talent agency and long-time manager Tony Ciulla all dropping him.
At least 11 women have now come forward to accuse Manson of abuse dating back years
Lindsay Usich and Marilyn Manson in January 2020. The couple wed last year after an on-off relationship since 2012
The latest avalanche of allegations against Manson kicked off on February 1 when Wood shared her Instagram post about Manson, whom she started dating in 2007, when she was 19. They got engaged before breaking up in 2010.
In her post, Wood said she had been ‘brainwashed and manipulated’ by Manson and spent years living in fear of ‘retaliation, slander, or blackmail’.
‘He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years,’ the Westworld actress wrote.
‘I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.’
She also shared statements from four other accusers: An artist known only as Gabriella; photographer Ashley Walters; model Sarah McNeilly; and model Ashley Lindsay Morgan.
The women each claim they were victims of sexual misconduct, manipulation, and physical and emotional abuse at Manson’s hands.
The allegations vary but all say Manson left them with PTSD after forcing them into blood pacts, plying them with drugs, becoming violent with them and gaslighting them.
Artist Gabriella claimed she dated Marilyn Manson for six months between 2015 and 2016 and that he drove her to attempt suicide after tying her up, depriving her of sleep and plying her with drugs during their relationship which began when she was 22 and he was 46.
She shared photographs of herself with Manson and texts she says he sent her to add validity to her story.
Hours after Wood’s first post, another three women made allegations on social media that Wood re-posted on her account. They did not go into detail about their relationships with Manson but all three said he was an abuser.
Those women are Scarlett Kapella, Brittany Leigh, and Torii Lynn.
Wood first named her alleged abuser on social media February 1 (above)
Evan Rachel Wood (shown with Manson in 2007) named him as her abuser on Monday in an Instagram post. The pair dated and became engaged in 2010 but split later that year
The following day, four more women made allegations against the rocker.
Visual filmmaker Love Bailey claimed Manson once held a gun to her forehead.
In an Instagram video she claimed that Manson told her he didn’t ‘like f*****s’ as he held the weapon to her head while she was working at a shoot in his home in 2011.
Musician Chloe Black spoke out on Instagram to allege Manson deprived her of sleep, made racist and anti-Semitic comments and that she once ‘thought he was actually going to kill me.’
Artist and writer Louise Keay Bell claimed Manson ’emotionally and financially abused me and tried to control me’ from the age of 19.
Actor Charlyne Yi also alleged Manson harassed her and other women on the set of the TV series House and said when she spoke out about the abuse three years ago she had received death threats.
Former porn star Jenna Jameson told DailyMail.com last week that Manson fantasized about burning her alive and ‘liked to bite’ during sex when they dated back in 1997.
Last Thursday, Indie star Phoebe Bridgers said she ‘stand[s] by’ Manson’s alleged victims as she recalled a time she visited Manson’s home as a teenager and the 52-year-old rock star showed her a room he described as his ‘rape room’.
She slammed people now ‘pretending to be shocked’ about the abuse allegations as ‘f**ing pathetic’.
Love Bailey spoke out last week about a time Manson allegedly put a gun to her head
Scarlette Kapella (left) and Torii Lynn (right) said they too were victims of abuse by Manson
Manson’s ex-wife Von Teese addressed the allegations leveled at Manson in a statement on Instagram last week.
In it, the 48-year-old burlesque star said she had been ‘processing the news’ about her ex, who she dated for six years before they tied the knot in 2005.
Von Teese insisted the experiences detailed by Manson’s alleged victims ‘do not match’ her own experience with the rock star.
‘Please know that the details made public do not match my personal experience during our 7 years together as a couple,’ she wrote.
‘Had they, I would not have married him in December 2005.’
She said she left Manson and filed for divorce 12 months after they wed ‘due to infidelity and drug abuse.’
While Von Teese said she had not been abused by Manson during their time together, she wished ‘strength’ on the women who had come forward.
‘Abuse of any kind has no place in any relationship. I urge those of you who have incurred abuse to take steps to heal and the strength to fully realize yourself,’ she wrote.
Von Teese said she also appreciated the ‘kindness’ of people who voiced concern for her ‘well-being’ following the news this week.
Rose McGowan, one of Manson’s former girlfriends, also said in a statement that while he was never abusive to her, she ‘stands with’ the accusers.
Manson has since been dropped by his record label, Loma Vista Records, talent agency CAA and he has been edited out of American Gods and Creepshow, two shows he was taking part in.
On Friday, Tony Ciulla, his manager of more than two decades also distanced himself.
Ciulla, who hasn’t commented on the abuse allegations against his client, dropped Manson after Woods publicly named him on social media earlier this week, a source told Rolling Stone.
There are now also questions around how the allegations came to the surface.
California State Senator Susan Rubio wrote to the FBI and the Justice Department demanding an investigation into Manson on January 21 – a week before the claims became public.
No investigation has been launched and Manson has never been arrested for any of the women’s allegations.
LAPD cops were called to Manson’s Hollywood Hills home over concerns for his safety on the night of February 3 amid the growing number of allegations against him.
Four police cruisers and an LAPD helicopter were dispatched to Manson’s home around 6.00pm to perform a ‘welfare check’ on the 52-year-old after a concerned friend couldn’t get in touch with him, reported TMZ.
Police later told DailyMail.com they were able to make contact with someone and found there was ‘no evidence of any trouble whatsoever’ at the property.
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