Game Of Thrones Actress Esmé Bianco Accuses Marilyn Manson Of Abuse
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Trigger warning: sexual assault and domestic abuse.
Since actress Evan Rachel Wood publicly accused her ex-fiancé Marilyn Manson of “horrific” abuse earlier this month, over a dozen other women have come forward with similar allegations. And now Esmé Bianco, the actress and burlesque performer known to many for her role as Ros on the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones, has also accused Manson of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
Bianco spoke about her relationship with Manson in a lengthy piece in New York magazine today, calling him a “serial predator” and a “monster who almost destroyed me and almost destroyed so many women.” She provided the publication with emails, text messages, and photographs from her time with Manson, and numerous friends and members of his entourage corroborated the details of her story.
Although Bianco idolized Manson as a teenager, she first met him in 2005 through his then-fiancée Dita Von Teese. They kept in touch after his marriage ended in 2007, and in 2009, he flew her from London to LA to star as his “victim/lover” in a music video for his song “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies.”
Bianco, then 26, expected it to be a professional shoot. Instead, she spent the next few days in lingerie, barely sleeping or eating, with Manson serving cocaine instead of food. He became violent, tying her with cables to a prayer kneeler, lashing her with a whip, and using an electric sex toy on her wounds. Manson never sent her the footage and made constant excuses for not releasing the video.
Bianco and Manson then began a long-distance affair, with Manson visiting her in London and arranging her travel to LA. She says he would frequently bite her during sex without consent, leaving her whole body bruised. In 2011, when he asked her to move in with him and promised to help get her a visa, Bianco left London and began living in Manson’s West Hollywood apartment.
After a brief honeymoon period, Manson became extremely controlling, dictating what she could wear, her sleep schedule, and when she could come and go from the apartment. “I basically felt like a prisoner,” Bianco says. “I came and went at his pleasure. Who I spoke to was completely controlled by him. I called my family hiding in the closet.”
The Game Of Thrones pilot aired while Bianco was staying with Manson; he repeatedly played her sex scene on a projector for guests, saying, “That’s my girlfriend, she’s a whore. Look, her tits are out.” A former member of Manson’s inner circle, who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from Manson, recalls frequently seeing bruises on her arms and back.
“I think I would have made excuses for him,” Bianco says. “I was in survival mode at that point, and my brain had taught me to be small and agreeable.” Once, Manson repeatedly cut Bianco’s 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 his assistant and a bandmate with the subject line “See what happens?”
Bianco spent about two months living with Manson, drinking heavily to cope and often in a dissociative state. She began secretly looking for apartments after Manson chased her around his home with an axe; she left while he was sleeping and broke up with him over email. Later, when she saw him after one of his shows in 2013, he blocked the doorway to the room at the back of his tour bus and refused to let her leave until 5AM.
Like Evan Rachel Wood, Bianco testified in front of the California Assembly in 2019 to help extend California’s statue of limitations on domestic violence offenses, although she did not name Manson as her abuser at the time. “He’s told the world time and time again, ‘This is who I am,’” Bianco says. “He hid in plain sight … He’s not a misunderstood artist. He deserves to be behind bars for the rest of his life.”
If you or someone you know is suffering abuse, please contact RAINN’s National Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit RAINN.org.
