Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Evan rachel Wood. Welcome to
Speaker 1: The Daily Show. Thanks thanks for having me. It's good
Speaker 1: to have you here, especially to talk about a topic
Speaker 1: that I think is one of the more sensitive topics
Speaker 1: that were discussing in society today, but also one of
Speaker 1: the more pertinent topics that we're discussing in society today.
Speaker 1: And it's in and around the issue of abuse, you know,
Speaker 1: sexual abuse, which, as we learned from the Me Too movements,
Speaker 1: is far more rampant than people would have wanted to
Speaker 1: admit or even some people realized. And you've created a
Speaker 1: documentary here, let's start with the why maybe, and not
Speaker 1: why the documentary, but the timing of the documentary. So
Speaker 1: many people want to let go of pain in their life,
Speaker 1: so many people want to move on. It feels like
Speaker 1: you've done the exact opposite. You've gone back into the pain.
Speaker 1: You've gone back into the story. Why and why now?
Speaker 1: Well it is sixteen years later, So I do get
Speaker 1: a lot of people commenting on how I'm able to
Speaker 1: speak about things and put on a brief face and
Speaker 1: and and how strong I am, um, but it took
Speaker 1: sixteen years to get here, and and The first thing
Speaker 1: that I did when I got out was try to
Speaker 1: get as far away from it as possible, try to
Speaker 1: forget it ever happened. You're you're you're running, You're trying
Speaker 1: to forget that it ever happened. Um. And then of
Speaker 1: course it catches up with you, and I couldn't run
Speaker 1: from it. It started the trauma started to seep into
Speaker 1: other areas of my life. So I threw myself in
Speaker 1: a in a therapy, which I highly recommend if you
Speaker 1: have the resources. Unfortunately, in this country, you know, mental
Speaker 1: health is not always at the top of the list. Um.
Speaker 1: And And really, I I was planning on taking this
Speaker 1: to my grave. I really was not planning on saying anything. Ever.
Speaker 1: I was that afraid, um, and not afraid of retaliation.
Speaker 1: I just did not feel safe and I felt very alone.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the only one you'll hear that
Speaker 1: a lot from from abuse survivors. When I first was
Speaker 1: asked to testify for the Sexual Assault of Virus Bill
Speaker 1: of Rights in front of Congress about my story, I
Speaker 1: really thought that was going to be it. I thought, Okay, here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell my story and that's it. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be done. And then women started popping up and
Speaker 1: then online that had eerily similar stories, but new details
Speaker 1: that I knew they weren't lying. They're very very specific
Speaker 1: details that I there's there's just no way you could
Speaker 1: know those things unless unless you were toe to toe
Speaker 1: with that person, and so so I knew it was real,
Speaker 1: and that's when it changed. That's when I knew I
Speaker 1: couldn't stay quiet. You know, when you say that person,
Speaker 1: I guess one of the reasons the stories as big
Speaker 1: as it is not just because of what happened, but
Speaker 1: it's because of who it involves. You know, you named
Speaker 1: Marilyn Manson. In cases of abuse, oftentimes we think of
Speaker 1: it as being black or white, good and bad. You know,
Speaker 1: there are layers to people which make it complicated. And
Speaker 1: you've talked about You've talked about his history. You've talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, his history with abuse, You've talked about his
Speaker 1: his history with you know, the issues that he deals
Speaker 1: with mentally, et cetera. I found that particularly interesting because
Speaker 1: I felt it cloudy is a subject that is already
Speaker 1: quite complicated, and yet because of that it deserves to
Speaker 1: be part of the conversation. Why did you feel it
Speaker 1: necessary to say, Hey, this is the person who abused me,
Speaker 1: and this person also suffered abuse, and this person is
Speaker 1: also going through things. Why do that? Knowing that it
Speaker 1: would then you know, almost cloud some people's judgment and
Speaker 1: like who's guilty or who's not even even who's accountable
Speaker 1: sometimes of course, and and and that's it can definitely
Speaker 1: get get complicated in that way because I do believe
Speaker 1: an accountability and healing and reform, and I think there
Speaker 1: is a a time and a space for that, and
Speaker 1: I think we need to leave more space for accountability.
Speaker 1: Otherwise nobody's going to be accountable. Um. But I just
Speaker 1: knew we're never going to get to the root of
Speaker 1: this problem if if, if we don't go into the background,
Speaker 1: um and and the root and the cause, because violence
Speaker 1: in the home is the root of so many issues
Speaker 1: in this country, in the world. It bleeds into almost
Speaker 1: every area of society and we don't even realize it. Um.
Speaker 1: And violence begets violence, it's it is. It is a cycle.
Speaker 1: Um And Uh, there are people that can stop the cycle. Um.
Speaker 1: And there are some people, I feel like Brian, that
Speaker 1: don't want help. And he's had every opportunity, he's had
Speaker 1: so many people try. Um, and he has. He has
Speaker 1: refused it every time. Um and uh once. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know how much I can say, but there
Speaker 1: you know there there have been allegations and stories that
Speaker 1: have come out on the on the internet that involved miners,
Speaker 1: and you gotta draw the line somewhere, and and with children,
Speaker 1: I have to draw the line there. Um and uh.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that he will stop until he has stopped.
Speaker 1: And sometimes the greatest act of love is stopping that
Speaker 1: person from hurting themselves or hurting anybody else. We in
Speaker 1: society often say, we go, why didn't you do it sooner?
Speaker 1: Why didn't you come forward sooner? And so I would
Speaker 1: love to know from you how time, how you think
Speaker 1: time affects the mental state, the relationship, and the entire
Speaker 1: world of somebody who's experienced sexual abuse. People underestimate the
Speaker 1: power of that kind of trauma and what it does
Speaker 1: to your body and to your brain. And there's so
Speaker 1: many studies to back this up. And and this is
Speaker 1: what the laws do not reflect, is the effects of
Speaker 1: trauma on the brain. And a lot of people when
Speaker 1: they're think they know how they're going to respond to
Speaker 1: a situation like that, but until you're in a life
Speaker 1: threatening situation and you're doing risk assessment and you're in
Speaker 1: survival mode and you're going to have that fight, flight
Speaker 1: or freeze response sometimes all three. Um, you're just trying
Speaker 1: to survive that moment and get the least amount of damn,
Speaker 1: you know. And uh and then once you're out again,
Speaker 1: like I said, you you your your body and your
Speaker 1: brain to back flips to protect you from the pain.
Speaker 1: And and and that's how denial comes into play. That's
Speaker 1: how you know, addiction comes into play bad coping mechanisms
Speaker 1: because you're just trying to bury because to to face it,
Speaker 1: to to face the reality is almost unbearable. I think
Speaker 1: on average it takes people seven to ten years to
Speaker 1: be able to process, understand, heal, and be able to
Speaker 1: put things in chronological order the laws. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: in California, the Sagic Limitations was one to three years
Speaker 1: when we started advocating for the Phoenix Act. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of three years is nothing to a survivor or
Speaker 1: into something that is experienced, not just one incidence of trauma,
Speaker 1: which is you know, any act of trauma is terrible,
Speaker 1: but you know, imagine seven for four years, the damage
Speaker 1: that would do on somebody's psyche and self esteem, and
Speaker 1: UM was somebody like him who was very calculated in
Speaker 1: brainwashing in in isolation. UM, it very much operates like
Speaker 1: a cult, and that when you're in it, you can't
Speaker 1: see the force for the through the trees. Up is down,
Speaker 1: down is up. It's it's you two against the world,
Speaker 1: and it is a secret that nobody will ever be
Speaker 1: able to understand. And you feel like you're a part
Speaker 1: of something you know, UM, and you've gotta you've gotta
Speaker 1: break free of that illusion. And and it takes time.
Speaker 1: It takes time and work and therapy. I cannot stress
Speaker 1: that enough. UM. But you know again, I I I
Speaker 1: have those resources, I have a platform, I have privileged
Speaker 1: So it really breaks my heart to think of people
Speaker 1: that don't have access to the things that I have
Speaker 1: had access to and how alone they must feel. And
Speaker 1: that really is what what drives me well. As I
Speaker 1: said at the beginning of the conversation, it's one of
Speaker 1: the hardest conversations to have, I think, because it makes
Speaker 1: us question a lot of what we've allowed society, who
Speaker 1: we are, who we were, and who we hope to be,
Speaker 1: and um, yeah. Thank you for joining us on the show,
Speaker 1: and I encourage everybody to watch the documentary and hear
Speaker 1: your side of the story. Thank you so much. The
Speaker 1: two part HBO documentary Phoenix Rising is March fifteen and
Speaker 1: sixteen on HBO and can be streamed on HBO Max.
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