For quite some time, I was concerned (as were we all) about Evan Rachel Wood, mostly due to her on-off-relationship with Marilyn Manson that lasted four years and eventually ended in a broken engagement. These days, I don’t worry so much about her, for the 23-year old actress seems remarkably resilient after spending a significant (4-year) chunk of her life with, well, the likes of Marilyn Manson. How she made it through the ordeal without some serious PTSD is beyond me, but even during the height of that horrific-looking relationship, Wood was always known for her professionalism and lack of starlet behavior. Refreshing, isn’t it?

Soon, Wood shall be co-starring in The Ides of March with George Clooney, and the girl can even pull off the most fug outfits on the red carpet (as she did at The Conspirator premiere). Meanwhile, she’s winning rave reviews for her performance in Mildred Pierce. Since I don’t have HBO, I’ve not yet watched Pierce, but CB thinks that Wood is great at playing a character that is “truly evil and conniving” in the miniseries. Oh, and remember all of that talk of the merkin affair? Well, you can see that (obviously NSFW) hot merkin action right here if you’re curious.

Wood recently sat down with NyMag to discuss all of her current projects, and the interview took a very enlightening turn towards the topic of exactly why she dated Manson in the first place:

On Impressing Redford: At Evan Rachel Wood’s first meeting with Robert Redford, who was looking to cast her as a Confederate daughter in his Lincoln-­assassination drama, The Conspirator (out April 15), the actress fixed her gaze on him intently enough that Redford later told her, “ ’You were so intimidating, I had no idea what you were thinking.’ ” Wood exults at the memory. “I was, like, Yeeessss!” she says, performing a reverse elbow-jack to the torso. “I got Redford.”

On Her Role As Veda Pierce: “It’s the hardest role I’ve ever had to do, ever, absolutely,” says Wood, who–even though she wasn’t doing her own singing–trained for months with an opera coach, just to get the breathing and gestures right. Guy Pearce, who shared a trailer with Wood, could hear her practicing her vocals daily. “All I wanted to do was stick my head in and say, Do you mind if I watch?” he says. When they reviewed footage, he says, “Kate and I were looking at each other, and Todd and Kate were looking at one another, going, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”

On Why She Dated Manson: Wood’s own mother was an actress who, upon divorcing her husband when Evan was 9, moved to L.A. and quit acting to become a drama coach and concentrate on her daughter’s career. During the filming of Thirteen, Wood had to banish her from the set in order to shoot some of the R-rated scenes, and when she was 18, she moved to New York to put some physical distance between them. “We had a bad breakup,” she says. “We hadn’t been apart for more than a week my whole life. We shared a room, we shared a bed. She was constantly by my side, all the time, until the minute I turned 18. I hopped on ­[Marilyn Manson’s] tour bus, and was like, I’m going to have an adolescence.” As mother-estrangement maneuvers go, appearing in a rock video in which you are doused in gore while making out with your goth boyfriend is hard to beat. “I didn’t really get a normal childhood,” says Wood. “Manson gave me what I felt I’d missed out on, where you get to experiment and cut loose and change and grow. I lived 50 lifetimes in those four years.”

On Her Alleged Bieber Fever: “I’m really enjoying being single and concentrating on work right now. That and watching the Food Network and listening to Justin Bieber,” she says, showing off her purple Bieber hat, as sure a sign as any that her Manson years are over. “People honestly think I’m kidding about Bieber,” she says. “My mom is so confused. She’s like, ‘Evan, really?’ I’m like, ‘Go see Never Say Never. You’ll understand.’ “

[From NyMag]

Okay, now the Manson relationship makes a bit more sense considering the revelations of Wood’s fairly stifling family situation. Thank goodness she finally woke up and dumped that “shock rocker” loser. I’m still having a hard time believing that she’s truly knocking back with Bieber music in her spare time. How is that even possible? Maybe she’s just messing with all of us.

Photo note by Kaiser: These are pics of ERW at last night’s NYC premiere of ‘The Conspirator’, courtesy of WENN.