Circus: How vain are you?

Twiggy: I'm very vain and I wear dresses more often off than on-stage!

Circus: But your hit "The Beautiful People" is an open criticism to the beauty ideals favored and hyped in series' like "Baywatch" and "Beverly Hills 90210."

Twiggy: That's different. We are against the beauty and facist regime that gets hyped in America and all over the world. "The Beautiful People" is not against people who style themselves in whichever way.

Circus: You come from the Florida death-metal scene and you said you like AC/DC.

Twiggy: Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to record the same album over and over. "Antichrist Superstar" is a big step forward and I am very proud of it. No matter what our image is like - and we focus on strong image - the music is extremely important. When we are writing songs or recording them, we see ourselves as artists and we act out our creativity. On stage we are simply performers and play different characters. We are like the indians who used different masks and paints for different rituals. When we are playing a gig I simply become Twiggy.

Circus: Don't you become schitzophrenic with all those characters?

Twiggy: There is a certain force and it can become schitzophrenic - yeah I feel schitzophrenic lately - but it is so much fun to slip into the different roles. We are not only entertaining and amusing the audience, we are also entertaining ourselves.

Circus: How far does that go?

Twiggy: Lately I started dressing up and camoflauging a lot even in my private life. When I go out I often wear a false beard or mustache.

Circus: But why?

Twiggy: Maybe because you can behave like you want, do whatever you want, when you are not "yourself." You can act out all your evil dark sides without feeling responsible. It's not something Marilyn Manson invented. Check out Mardi Gras and see how people behave.

Circus: Marilyn Manson are often accused to be Satanist.

Twiggy: Christianity, like most religions, works with fear. Sins can be confessed and you are "clean" again and can start to sin again without thinking about your old sins. We believe that people should ask themselves why they sinned. They should show some responsiblity.

Circus: But, you present a rather sinful image onstage.

Twiggy: A lot of sins are done on purpose - lying for example - and after confessing them, they are gone and people can start again. That is hypocritical. Because we tell people we are against organized religions doesn't mean we burn down churches or worship the devil. We have our own religion and some parts of it are even identical with some Christian beliefs. Going to confession and being "clean" again afterwards is not our idea of how it should work. It helps people to avoid responsibility. I think everybody is always responsible for what they do and everybody should accept that responsibility.

Circus: What did you do before you joined Marilyn Manson?

Twiggy: Our history starts with the band which existed five years already when I joined in '93.

Circus: But you must have had a life before the band.

Twiggy: Marilyn himself was a journalist, for example, but I think he just got so fed up with all the crap people fed him and listening to the same shit over and over that he decided to do the talking.

Circus: A lot of people claim that you just constructed an image that sells.

Twiggy: We didn't construct an image, as you phrase it. A lot of people say something and it doesn't mean it's true. A lot of people out there are simply jealous. Our fans know what we are and the rest are just plainly jealous or vicious. Grunge killed the rock star and we want to get the rock star back to life. When I was 13 I wanted to be Kiss. Not because I needed an idol I could follow blindly, I just wanted to live like they did. People who claim our band is all about "image" don't understand anything. But hey, it is still better that the kids idolize us and identify themselves with us, instead of leaving them alone with their suicidal tendencies and thoughts.