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Marilyn Manson Finally Speaks Out On Controversial Music Video With Lana Del Rey
Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic
• December 11, 2014
The video had depicted sexual assault between Lana Del Rey and horror film director/actor Eli Roth.
Weeks later, Marilyn Manson has finally come forward with an official statement addressing the music video that featured a troubling (staged) sexual assault scene between Lana Del Rey and actor/director Eli Roth.
In an interview with NME, Manson has stated that he was indeed present during various points of filming, but that the rape scene with Del Rey was never meant to be footage for any official Manson video. NME adds that the Del Rey/Roth scene was "filmed separately and later edited by someone not affiliated with Manson to look like it was part of the same clip."
"The editor of the company that put it out was somebody who's edited my videos, that video was something that was done with a camera that Eli [Roth], who's my friend, and I both wanted to test out, so I let him test it out [...] what they filmed was put in context seemingly as if it were a Marilyn Manson video, and that was in no way the intention," Manson shared.
Manson also tells NME that he really did want to collaborate with Del Rey but the idea has since been scrapped: "Eli and I wanted to do a music video with her, but she was being such a problem ... Although I still respect her, I'm friends with her. I just left, I was tired, I was not willing to make that part of the video. Eli and I originally had intentions of making a video with her, but that is not the intention that is represented in that film clip because that is not what I filmed, not for my video."
On November 24, Manson's camp explicitly denied any involvement with the clip, telling Billboard, "Manson did not direct this, shoot it, not was it for a Marilyn Manson video or out-take footage made by him or to be used by him with his music" and that "It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else’s Lana Del Rey footage."
Finally, Manson affirms that he just wouldn't ever make a music video "of that nature": "I don't think either of us were ever intending for that to be seen, it was more of a camera test. I'm a person that would beat somebody's ass if they raped somebody that I know."
(Manson's Sons of Anarchy character, it should be noted, was the perpetrator of a few prison rapes throughout the final season of the FX show.)
Read Manson's full interview with NME here. Manson's forthcoming album, The Pale Emperor, is out January 19.
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