One of the first actresses to accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape has claimed Hollywood is built on ‘sickness’ and acts like a ‘cult’ in a candid interview about her ordeal.
Rose McGowan opened up about her alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Weinstein and how she suffered abuse when she first arrived in the town.
The alleged assault by Weinstein occurred at the 1997 Sundance film festival, where her manager told her to go and meet him. As the meeting finished McGowan claims she walked away when Weinstein then pushed her into a Jacuzzi room, took off her clothes and sexually assaulted her. McGowan claimed she faked an orgasm to get him to stop, she told the Guardian.
McGowan was at the Hay festival today. She previously claimed she was given $100,000 by a lawyer following her allegations against Weinstein
Weinstein denies the allegations and released an email by McGowan’s manager at the time, Jill Messick, where she says she believed the sex was consensual or something McGowan later regretted. In February this year, Messick, who had mental health problems, killed herself – something her family partly blame on Weinstein and McGowan.
Following the alleged assault, McGowan said she was approached by a lawyer who told her she would never win a court case against him because she was an actress and had performed in a sex scene. Instead she was given $100,000.
McGowan also spoke of one of her first experiences in Hollywood, when she was aged just 15 and appeared in a film Class of 1999. She was sexually assaulted by one of the men involved in the film and quickly came to realise the culture around the town.
Describing Hollywood, she said: ‘… that town is really built on sickness. Very early on I looked at the power structure, the figureheads, the silence, the closed ranks. Nobody tells. It operates like a cult.’
McGowan said she was blacklisted by Weinstein following the altercation, and said she was aware that other producers were aware of her allegations.
She said: ‘I thought the people participating in it were disgusting and weak because they knew the truth, but they did it anyway. To me, they’re blacker than he is in a lot of ways. I had an agent who said [a Hollywood executive] had said: “Over my dead body will Rose McGowan ever be hired.”‘
Harvey Weinstein and Rose McGowan during ‘Grindhouse’ Los Angeles Premiere in 2007
Rose McGowan opened up about her alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Weinstein and how she suffered abuse when she first arrived in the town
When asked about her reaction following Weinstein’s indictment on rape and criminal sex act charges, she said: ‘I cried the other night, finally.
‘I was asked a lot when he was arrested: ‘How does it feel?’ And I hadn’t really had time to process how it felt. I went to Central Park – it was around midnight – and I just cried. I cried for the girl I was, I cried for her. But today I smile for me.’
McGowan was at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye today. Her book ‘Brave’ is published by HarperCollins at £20.