Content Warning: This article includes discussion of sexual assault
In Phoenix Rising, Amy Berg’s new documentary about actor Evan Rachel Wood, Wood accuses Marilyn Manson of raping her during the filming of Manson’s 2007 music video, ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’.
In response to the allegations, Victoria Ambrose launched a change.org petition calling for the music video to be removed from YouTube. “Survivors and allies need to come together to remove things like this. This should not still be allowed on YouTube, or circulating anywhere for that matter,” Ambrose said.
The petition has received close to thirty-one thousand signatures since launching this week. Ambrose is calling on signatories to “report [the] video on YouTube, and sign and share this petition.” Earlier this week, Wood shared the petition via her Instagram stories.
The music video remains on YouTube, but YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said (via Pitchfork) the company is “monitoring the situation closely” and “will take appropriate action” if the video is found to be in breach of YouTube’s “creator responsibility guidelines.”
In Phoenix Rising, Wood says that she and Manson “had discussed a simulated sex scene, but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real.” Wood was 19 years old at the time and had been working in film and television for more than a decade.
“I’m a professional actress, I have been doing this my whole life, I’d never been on a set that unprofessional in my life up until this day,” she said.
“I felt disgusting and like I had done something shameful and I could tell that the crew was very uncomfortable and nobody knew what to do. I was coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretences.”
