Evan Rachel Wood - "Phoenix Rising"

And it's in and around the issue of abuse, you know, sexual abuse, which, as we learned from the Me Too movements, is far more rampant than people would have wanted to admit or even some people realized. And you've created a documentary here, let's start with the why maybe, and not why the documentary, but the timing of the documentary. So many people want to let go of pain in their life, so many people want to move on. It feels like

you've done the exact opposite. You've gone back into the pain. You've gone back into the story. Why and why now? Well it is sixteen years later, So I do get a lot of people commenting on how I'm able to speak about things and put on a brief face and and and how strong I am, um, but it took sixteen years to get here, and and The first thing that I did when I got out was try to get as far away from it as possible, try to forget it ever happened. You're you're you're running, You're trying

to forget that it ever happened. Um. And then of course it catches up with you, and I couldn't run from it. It started the trauma started to seep into other areas of my life. So I threw myself in a in a therapy, which I highly recommend if you have the resources. Unfortunately, in this country, you know, mental health is not always at the top of the list. Um. And And really, I I was planning on taking this to my grave. I really was not planning on saying anything. Ever.

I was that afraid, um, and not afraid of retaliation. I just did not feel safe and I felt very alone. I thought it was the only one you'll hear that a lot from from abuse survivors. When I first was asked to testify for the Sexual Assault of Virus Bill of Rights in front of Congress about my story, I really thought that was going to be it. I thought, Okay, here, I'm gonna tell my story and that's it. I'm going

to be done. And then women started popping up and then online that had eerily similar stories, but new details that I knew they weren't lying. They're very very specific details that I there's there's just no way you could know those things unless unless you were toe to toe with that person, and so so I knew it was real, and that's when it changed. That's when I knew I

couldn't stay quiet. You know, when you say that person, I guess one of the reasons the stories as big as it is not just because of what happened, but it's because of who it involves. You know, you named Marilyn Manson. In cases of abuse, oftentimes we think of it as being black or white, good and bad. You know, there are layers to people which make it complicated. And

you've talked about You've talked about his history. You've talked about, you know, his history with abuse, You've talked about his his history with you know, the issues that he deals with mentally, et cetera. I found that particularly interesting because I felt it cloudy is a subject that is already quite complicated, and yet because of that it deserves to

be part of the conversation. Why did you feel it necessary to say, Hey, this is the person who abused me, and this person also suffered abuse, and this person is

also going through things. Why do that? Knowing that it would then you know, almost cloud some people's judgment and like who's guilty or who's not even even who's accountable sometimes of course, and and and that's it can definitely get get complicated in that way because I do believe an accountability and healing and reform, and I think there is a a time and a space for that, and I think we need to leave more space for accountability.

Otherwise nobody's going to be accountable. Um. But I just knew we're never going to get to the root of this problem if if, if we don't go into the background, um and and the root and the cause, because violence in the home is the root of so many issues in this country, in the world. It bleeds into almost every area of society and we don't even realize it. Um. And violence begets violence, it's it is. It is a cycle.

Um And Uh, there are people that can stop the cycle. Um. And there are some people, I feel like Brian, that don't want help. And he's had every opportunity, he's had so many people try. Um, and he has. He has refused it every time. Um and uh once. I mean, I don't know how much I can say, but there you know there there have been allegations and stories that have come out on the on the internet that involved miners, and you gotta draw the line somewhere, and and with children,

I have to draw the line there. Um and uh. I don't believe that he will stop until he has stopped. And sometimes the greatest act of love is stopping that person from hurting themselves or hurting anybody else. We in society often say, we go, why didn't you do it sooner? Why didn't you come forward sooner? And so I would love to know from you how time, how you think time affects the mental state, the relationship, and the entire

world of somebody who's experienced sexual abuse. People underestimate the power of that kind of trauma and what it does to your body and to your brain. And there's so many studies to back this up. And and this is what the laws do not reflect, is the effects of

trauma on the brain. And a lot of people when they're think they know how they're going to respond to a situation like that, but until you're in a life threatening situation and you're doing risk assessment and you're in survival mode and you're going to have that fight, flight or freeze response sometimes all three. Um, you're just trying to survive that moment and get the least amount of damn,

you know. And uh and then once you're out again, like I said, you you your your body and your brain to back flips to protect you from the pain. And and and that's how denial comes into play. That's how you know, addiction comes into play bad coping mechanisms because you're just trying to bury because to to face it, to to face the reality is almost unbearable. I think on average it takes people seven to ten years to be able to process, understand, heal, and be able to

put things in chronological order the laws. I mean, you know, in California, the Sagic Limitations was one to three years

when we started advocating for the Phoenix Act. And you know, one of three years is nothing to a survivor or into something that is experienced, not just one incidence of trauma, which is you know, any act of trauma is terrible, but you know, imagine seven for four years, the damage that would do on somebody's psyche and self esteem, and UM was somebody like him who was very calculated in brainwashing in in isolation. UM, it very much operates like a cult, and that when you're in it, you can't

see the force for the through the trees. Up is down, down is up. It's it's you two against the world, and it is a secret that nobody will ever be able to understand. And you feel like you're a part of something you know, UM, and you've gotta you've gotta break free of that illusion. And and it takes time. It takes time and work and therapy. I cannot stress

that enough. UM. But you know again, I I I have those resources, I have a platform, I have privileged So it really breaks my heart to think of people that don't have access to the things that I have had access to and how alone they must feel. And

that really is what what drives me well. As I said at the beginning of the conversation, it's one of the hardest conversations to have, I think, because it makes us question a lot of what we've allowed society, who we are, who we were, and who we hope to be, and um, yeah. Thank you for joining us on the show, and I encourage everybody to watch the documentary and hear

your side of the story. Thank you so much. The two part HBO documentary Phoenix Rising is March fifteen and sixteen on HBO and can be streamed on HBO Max. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central. In stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast w