Rose McGowan is just getting started in her campaign to protect women and hold abusive men accountable. After Harvey Weinstein claimed in the press that their encounters had been “consensual,” McGowan blasted back, saying that was definitely not the case.
“He can fall off the planet,” McGowan told the Associated Press, “My statement is truth. My statement is reality. Stop saying it’s consensual, you pig… You know it’s not true!”
That response was triggered by a statement from Weinstein alleging that he had confirmation from McGowan’s former manager that Weinstein and McGowan engaged in consensual “encounter.”
McGowan isn’t having any of it, and she says she’s also not going to let Weinstein’s denials derail her current project promotions. McGowan has been very busy, and she is on the cusp of releasing a trio of different projects: an album, Planet 9; a TV docuseries, Citizen Rose; and a memoir, Brave.
Adverts for the book release teased that McGowan offers a detailed account of being assaulted by Weinstein, who she refers to in the book as “the monster.” McGowan says the attack happened in a hotel two decades ago.
When discussing the book, especially that pivotal and painful recollection, McGowan is not shy about accusing many in Hollywood of emboldening Weinstein by staying silent or protecting him. A promotional statement for the book includes the following:
“It is an affront not only to Rose but to the hundreds of women who have come forward with their stories of harassment, sexual abuse, and rape perpetrated by Mr. Weinstein and those like him… This is a sad, pathetic old-fashioned sexist attempt to undermine obvious truth and the gaslighting will no longer be tolerated…”
Some are saying McGowan is just taking advantage of the MeToo movement to re-energize her career. But that perspective doesn’t really line up with the facts. McGowan has spoken out about sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood for years, and she inked the contract for Brave a year before the MeToo movement exploded.
That’s not to say McGowan wasn’t looking ahead and hoping something like MeToo would happen. She says her book is not a “tell-all,” it’s a “tell it like it is.” That, she says, is what she’s been doing for years, and she’s happy that some people are starting to listen. Speaking to the Associated Press, McGowan said:
“My book was never meant to come out to deaf ears. I always had to smash the Hollywood propaganda machine first; this was not an accident. This was not a case of being the first one to speak. This was me being behind the scenes.”