Marilyn Manson had to pretend to eat a real leech on the set of the TV show ‘Salem’.
The 47-year-old shock rocker stars in the third season of the American supernatural drama series as a barber and one scene saw him have the slimy segmented worm in his mouth, although he wasn’t allowed to swallow it.
Asked what it was like eating a leech, he said: "I was a little disappointed that the leech handler wouldn’t let me be a little bit rougher with them [laughs]. They don’t really have nervous systems, technically. But I remember as a little kid I used to pour salt on slugs. They’re probably from the same family. And I have eaten escargot before, so I figured why not eat the leech? It’s not that big of a deal."
Asked if it was a real one, he added: "Yeah. I wasn’t technically allowed to swallow it. So we will agree to disagree to agree that there is a leech in my mouth that did not necessarily get eaten."
Meanwhile, the ‘Personal Jesus’ hitmaker – who made his acting debut in David Lynch’s ‘Lost Highway’ in 1997 – also painted a goat black on the set just for fun.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "I’d seen that movie ‘The Witch’ about a week into working on ‘Salem’ … And the goat in the movie, Black Phillip, became an obsession of mine. So on the last day of the shoot, I requested a black goat to play with, just off set, just for my own recreational purposes. But they brought a red goat, so I sang quite simply … ‘I see a red goat, and I want to paint it black’ (to the tune of Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’). And everyone really got a kick out of it. And I did: They did let me paint it black. It was ornery."
Manson appears in the third season of the show, which premieres Wednesday (02.11.16) on WGN America.
Marilyn Manson pretends to eat live leech in Salem
