HOLLYWOOD SCANDAL
Actress on mission to halt abuse
ROMOLA GARAI Actress LAUREN SIVAN Journalist LIZA CAMPBELL Writer LEA SEYDOUX Actress CARA DELEVINGNE Model/Actress KATE BECKINSALE Actress JESSICA BARTH Actress SOPHIE DIX Actress ROSE McGowan is on a one-woman crusade to expose Hollywood’s seedy underside.
This week, the Scream and Charmed star claimed Harvey Weinstein raped her 20 years ago in a Utah hotel room.
As the revelations emerged about Weinstein – who denies all allegations of non-consensual sex – McGowan used her Twitter account to call on the men of Hollywood to speak out against the systematic abuse of women in the film industry.
She called out Ben Affleck, her boyfriend in the 90s, for claiming not to know about her experience with Weinstein when she had told him about it at the time.
She tweeted that he should “f*** off” and called him a liar.
McGowan was speaking out about Hollywood abuse before the Weinstein allegations broke.
She told US magazine The Fall this month: “Hollywood acts as a mafia, except I realised one day that they never asked me to join.
“They just assumed I’d keep their secrets. Nobody goes against them for fear of reprisal. Well, I’m not afraid.
“I was sold as a sex symbol in Hollywood and what that does is it ostracises you from women and it makes every man think he can touch you and own you.”
In 2015, McGowan posted a costume note from an Adam Sandler Netflix show, in which she was to wear a push-up bra, tight top and skinny jeans.
It went viral and led to her being sacked by her agent.
Her response was to tweet: “I just got fired because I spoke up about the bulls*** in Hollywood.”
After 20 years in front of the camera, McGowan has given up acting and began directing to build a career on her own terms.
She is critical of some directors she worked with in the past, including Quentin Tarantino.
In his and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 B-movie pastiche project, Grindhouse, McGowan plays a go-go dancer whose leg is replaced with a machine gun after it gets torn off by zombies.
McGowan said: “Look at what they do to the women in their films, especially Tarantino. It’s really disturbing.
“In Grindhouse, one girl gets her face mown by a tyre. Another girl’s vagina gets cut in half. This is like somebody telling you what they think of women.” ● THE full interview is available in the current edition of The Fall magazine, which is on sale now.