Actress Esmé Bianco, perhaps best known for a role in Game of Thrones, has sued Marilyn Manson and his former manager. Her complaint alleges that Manson abused and threatened her starting in 2009.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Bianco says that Manson violated human trafficking law by bringing her to California from England under the false pretenses of roles in music videos and movies that never materialized…
The lawsuit alleges that in 2009, Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, flew Bianco to Los Angeles to shoot a video for the song, “I want to kill you like they do in the movies.”…
Manson deprived Bianco of food and sleep though gave her alcohol and drugs, locked her in a bedroom, whipped her, gave her electric shocks, tried to force her to have sex with another woman and threatened to enter her room and rape her during the night, the suit alleges. No video was ever released.
After the initial incidents during the video shoot, Bianco started a relationship with Manson but she alleges he raped her in 2011.
“Mr. Warner used drugs, force, and threats of force to coerce sexual acts from Ms. Bianco on multiple occasions,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Warner raped Ms. Bianco in or around May 2011.” It goes on to claim that Warner “committed sexual acts” with Bianco at times when she was unconscious or unable to consent, and lists the ways she claims he sexually battered her: “These acts include spanking, biting, cutting, and whipping Ms. Bianco’s buttocks, breasts, and genitals for Mr. Warner’s sexual gratification — all without the consent of Plaintiff.”
Bianco release a brief statement earlier today which said, “For far too long my abuser has been left unchecked, enabled by money, fame and an industry that turned a blind eye.”
— Esmé Bianco (@esmebianco) April 30, 2021
Bianco’s allegations against Manson aka Brian Warner, were first published by New York magazine back in February. That story offers a lot more detail, describing Manson as a controlling, moody drug-addict surrounded by people who were expected to put up with whatever abuse he felt like dishing out. In retrospect, Bianco describes it as two months of abuse of all kinds.
The Game of Thrones pilot aired during Bianco’s stay, andManson would play her sex scene on a projector for guests; she would feel humiliated. Alex remembers the singer showing it at least four times and saying, “That’s my girlfriend, she’s a whore. Look, her tits are out.” At one party, Manson lifted up her skirt and spanked her butt, which was already covered in a bruise — a moment Walters captured on-camera. Bianco often wore lingerie or dresses around the house, and Alex remembers seeing bruises on her arms and back. He didn’t know if they came from consensual sexual experiences and was too afraid of Manson to ask. In retrospect, Bianco doubts she would have accepted any help. “I think I would have made excuses for him,” she says. “I was in survival mode at that point, and my brain had taught me to be small and agreeable.”
Bianco spent roughly two months living with Manson, drinking heavily to cope. She was often in a dissociative state, “hovering above life like I was looking at it through a net curtain,” she says, raising her hands in front of her face. Once, she remembers, he repeatedly cut her torso with a knife. “I just remember laying there, and I didn’t fight it,” she says. “It was kind of this final-straw moment where I had lost all sense of hope and safety.” He sent a photo of her cuts to Walters and one of his bandmates at the time, with the subject line “See what happens?”
There are now at least 16 women, starting with actress Evan Rachel Wood, who’ve come forward telling similar stories about Warner’s abusive behavior. I wonder how he’s going to deal with being cut off from the world and dragged through the mud. Not in a healthy way, I’m guessing. But I don’t feel sorry for him. Whatever bad things the future holds for Brian Warner, he deserves them all. I only with the people who promoted and lionized him, knowing exactly who he was, would be dragged down with him.
Here’s Bianco telling her story to Good Morning America back in February.
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