Actress Evan Rachel Wood has called her romance with rocker Marilyn Manson "a bad idea", suggesting young girls shouldn't date much older men.

Manson was in his late 30s when he started dating The Wrestler star, who is now 21, and the odd couple split last year.

They briefly reconciled this past spring, but Wood has moved on again and is now dating actor Shane West, who turned 31 on Wednesday. And she's speaking out about age-gap romances.

She tells WENN, "I don’t think it works. I think it’s a bad idea. I think as long as you learn from it - good or bad experience - it’s an experience, and you should take something away from it."

And her viewpoint on romance with much older men is shaping the roles she plays - Wood insists she'd have turned down the chance to work with Woody Allen on his new film Whatever Works if her character's relationship with Larry David's went too far.

She explains, "I spoke to Larry about it and told him if the relationship went any further sexually I wouldn’t have done the movie... That's one of the things that I liked about the relationship in the movie; it never crosses that line or gets creepy."

Image © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)