Game of Thrones actress Esme Bianco has accused rocker Marilyn Manson of repeatedly cutting her torso with a knife, chasing her around his apartment with an ax, and treating her “like a prisoner.”
Bianco, who was a fan of Manson when she was a teenager, said, in an interview with The Cut, that she was eager to work with the rocker after first meeting him in 2005. By 2009, Manson had sent her a plane ticket to Los Angeles so that she could star in his “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies” music video.
Bianco remembers the shooting of the video as a disturbing experience, saying that she had spent three days in lingerie, barely slept or ate, was tied with cables to a prayer kneeler, lashed with a whip, and had an electric “Violet Wand” sex toy used on her wounds. The actress said that while she was terrified, she dismissed it as Manson simply being theatrical.
After that, the two kept in contact, and two years later, Bianco — who is from the United Kingdom — said that Manson asked her to move in with him, adding that he would help her get a visa while she figured out her acting career.
After moving in with Manson in March 2011, Bianco said she experienced a brief honeymoon phase before he began controlling every aspect of her life. The actress said that Manson dictated what she could wear, her sleep schedule, and when she could come and go from his apartment.
“I was often violently shaken awake should I go to sleep without permission,” said Bianco. “I basically felt like a prisoner,”I came and went at his pleasure. Who I spoke to was completely controlled by him. I called my family hiding in the closet.”
One of Bianco’s friends told The Cut, “I genuinely thought I might never hear from her again,” after the actress called him from “a cupboard” and tried to play off Manson’s behavior as “annoying boyfriend” antics.
Manson’s personal assistant, Ashley Walters said that when famous musicians, actors, or directors would come over, everyone in his inner circle would have to “put on our happy faces.”
At his apartment, Manson would play Bianco’s sex scene from Game of Thrones on a projector for his guests, one of whom told The Cut that the rocker showed it at least four times, stating, “That’s my girlfriend, she’s a whore. Look, her tits are out.”
The guest, who preferred to remain anonymous out of fear that Manson might retaliate against him, added that Bianco would often wear lingerie or dresses around the house, and that he remembers seeing bruises on her arms and back, but was unsure if they came from consensual sexual experiences — and was too afraid of Manson to ask.
Walters said that one night, after somebody had broken a glass in the studio, he texted her, saying, “Esme is gonna get the brunt of this. Don’t care.”
According to Bianco, Manson later 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.”
Manson later sent a photo of Bianco’s cuts to Walters, with the words, “See what happens?”
Bianco said her breaking point was in May 2011 when Manson chased her around his apartment with an ax. Walters said that she had witnessed the incident, and remembers watching the actress appear to have a panic attack, and was “visibly shaken up” after being threatened with the blade.
Bianco started secretly looking for apartments, and fled one day in June while Manson was sleeping. “I think that something inside me was just like, ‘Have some sort of respect for yourself,'” said Bianco of her exit.
Bianco is the latest woman to accuse Manson of sexual assault. In the past two weeks, more than a dozen women have come forward with similar allegations after the rocker’s ex-fiancé Evan Rachel Wood first accused him of “grooming” and abuse earlier this month.
Since then, Manson has been dropped by his record label, Loma Vista Recordings, his talent agency, CAA, as well as his longtime manager. The rocker has also been pulled from AMC, and STARZ TV shows.
Manson has denied all of the allegations, which he referred to as “distortions of reality.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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