Marilyn Manson Denies Involvement With Lana Del Rey Rape Scene

In November, video footage of Lana Del Rey playing out a graphic rape scene leaked to the internet. Directed by shock-jock director Eli Roth, the clip was assumed to be an outtake from a “sick” video for Marilyn Manson, starring Manson’s alleged then-girlfriend Del Rey. In a new interview with the NME, though, Manson denies the footage was part of his video shoot. (But then he kinda doesn’t? It’s a somewhat confusing quote.)

Manson’s involvement was denied in November by his publicist, but he elaborated further, saying the scene in question was not shot during the making of his video:

“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 – director), 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.”

He also says that the plan was initially to shoot a video with Del Rey, but that “she was being such a problem.”

Here’s where it gets a little confusing. Manson says he left the shoot because he was “tired,” but seems to know Roth and Del Rey filmed something:

“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.”

Then he blames the scene on the “people” (presumably, editing crew Sturmgruppe) who put together the film clip, which seemed to be a splice of that scene with other Manson footage:

“But the people put it together with my other clips. And it really strongly stands out of place, it doesn’t really make sense. I would not make a video of that nature, nor would Eli. 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.”

Even worse, the rape scene is apparently the least offensive of the footage that’s out there. Sturmgruppe’s Alan Lasky told Wondering Sound,

“The first time everybody saw the first cut, we all went, ‘No,'” he said. “We did the first screening of of the cut and then they’re like, ‘That’s gotta go in a vault in a salt mine in Nevada, and nobody’s going to see it.’ This is some people who have done some fairly controversial work in the past.”

As an example of that past work, one of the other Manson-Sturmgruppe videos excerpted in the reel, 2012′s “Slo-Mo-Tion,” shows the word “rape” spelled out in blood-like red lettering on a window.