{"id":3110,"date":"2015-08-14T11:31:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T11:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/nieuws\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2015-08-14T11:31:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T11:31:53","slug":"rose-mcgowan-filmmaker-and-feminist-declares-war-on-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charmed-online.nl\/?p=3110","title":{"rendered":"Rose McGowan, Filmmaker and Feminist, Declares War on Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the tweet heard \u2018round Hollywood. <\/p>\n

Last June, the beautiful actress Rose McGowan\u2014best remembered as HBIC Courtney from the 1999 teen film Jawbreaker; the supernatural Paige Matthews from five seasons of Charmed; the sultry Pam from Tarantino\u2019s Grindhouse; or maybe even as the one-time fianc\u00e9e to Marilyn Manson\u2014got annoyed.<\/p>\n

She had received a casting call notice requesting that actresses wear form-fitting clothes that emphasized their cleavage: \u201cpush-up bras encouraged.\u201d She tweeted it, along with this: \u201cCasting note that came w\/script I got today. For real. name of male star rhymes with Madam Panhandler hahahaha I die.\u201d It was an Adam Sandler movie. Shortly afterward, her agent fired her. <\/p>\n

To some, she may be an unlikely candidate for fighting misogyny in the entertainment industry\u2014a famed 2007 Rolling Stone cover (one of her many magazine covers) has her and Rosario Dawson wearing the kind of outfits that would have guaranteed them top billing in that Adam Sandler movie. But she said she grew up with an activist father, so her passion for social justice shouldn\u2019t be much of a shock. And smart career move? Just maybe. That attention-grabbing tweet came right before the New York City premiere of the first film she directed, Dawn. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now 41, and a filmmaker, Ms. McGowan is determined to prove her talents go beyond acting and making the pages of gossip rags. Largely absent from the public eye for a few years (after appearing in more than two-dozen films), Ms. McGowan has shifted her focus to working on private business ventures and is now directing and singing\u2014something most people don\u2019t know she\u2019s been doing \u201cundercover\u201d for years, she said. <\/p>\n

Last year, Dawn, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Best Original Short. She starts filming a full-length feature with a company known for working on women-centric projects this fall. Going forward, acting won\u2019t be the focus of her career for the foreseeable future, she hopes. Now, she finally feels like she has a voice in the industry she\u2019s been a part of for so long.<\/p>\n

Over dinner at LES hotspot ACME, McGowan dished to Observer about her upcoming feature-length film, her absence from the public eye and taking a stand for women in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

Was the short film Dawn your first foray into filmmaking? <\/strong>Dawn was my first foray into doing everything: having my name on something. It was my first foray into filmmaking. I\u2019m in a strange situation. I spent over 57,000 hours on sets. I grew up in this. I know what I\u2019m doing from the inside-out. I\u2019ve had a film education second-to-none that\u2019s really unique. I know films from gathering the money together to being on the cover of Rolling Stone: the business and the arts side of things. I\u2019m in a pretty unique position. The first-time director thing works for me, but it kind of doesn\u2019t work for me. I\u2019m in my own category. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re coming out with a feature-length film via Sundial Pictures and Tangerine Entertainment. What\u2019s it about? <\/strong>It\u2019s set in 1971, and it\u2019s called The Pines. I\u2019m calling it an art thriller because the girl hallucinates a lot, and I\u2019m going to be drawing a lot from the art world for it. The girl is in a mental institution and has a disorder where she hears a-tonal musical notes wherever she goes\u2026 She can\u2019t prove to the people in the institution that she has these hallucinations, so they make her leave. She tries to rejoin society, and it doesn\u2019t go well\u2026 It\u2019s really about a girl who\u2019s completely lost, lost in the world of her mind and the world of sound. First-time director? I\u2019ve had over 57,000 hours on sets; a film education second to none. I\u2019m in my own category. <\/p>\n

You were recently the opening singer for Mary J. Blige at an event. Did you just start making music recently? <\/strong>I\u2019ve sang on soundtracks before. I\u2019ve sang other songs under different names\u2026 I\u2019ve basically been conducting a funny experiment on the public in a weird way. Maybe I\u2019ll tell people in a book when I\u2019m 80. <\/p>\n

So, for most people who don\u2019t know, what does your music sound like?<\/strong> It\u2019s raw\u2014it\u2019s real. I don\u2019t do auto-tune. I usually do one or two takes. It was very bizarre and fascinating\u2014opening up for Mary J. Blige. It\u2019s very tonally different\u2014but two boss women\u2026 I thought I\u2019d pass out. It\u2019s kind of like Eminem says, \u201cSuccess is my only motherfuckin\u2019 option. Failure\u2019s not.\u201d My first single will be \u201cFor You Only\u201d and it will probably be coming out in a month or two. <\/p>\n

What have you been doing the past 7 years under the radar? <\/strong>I spent the past 7 years in my version of the Witness Relocation Program [laughs]. I spent the last 7 years dismantling. What I was doing the past 7 years is dismantling being famous as a misconceived notion\u2026 I have a much larger fan base\u2014if you put it that way\u2014than what Hollywood understood. I think people don\u2019t respond to a specific role, but to an attitude: a strong person and a strong person with their own mind. I think it\u2019s okay to be different. It\u2019s okay to be the weird one because you know what? You\u2019re not. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best lesson you learned in your time in the 20 years in the entertainment industry?<\/strong> Don\u2019t let anybody abuse you. <\/p>\n

Everything that happened with Adam Sandler was insane. It was really powerful that you took a stand for yourself and for women in general. <\/strong> It\u2019s not about him\u2014he had nothing to do with it. It was the studio and the casting office. It was probably a woman who had to type that [casting] note up. It\u2019s so crazy that this went through so many hands and didn\u2019t get flagged as something inappropriate\u2014it\u2019s so status quo. It\u2019s just dumb. Most jobs have a human resources department. In the entertainment industry, there\u2019s no such thing. Just because I want to be a creator and an artist means I get to be abused? No thank you. You don\u2019t get to do that to me. <\/p>\n

I feel really bad for that kid that I was who was discovered on a street corner at age 17 and a half. I got battered around, and it was a very treacherous place with no protection. I feel really bad for her, but what I\u2019m trying to do is make it better for the next girl. We need the men to help too. We can do this.<\/p>\n

You know, I cut my hair off 4-5 months ago, and I cut it myself. I still cut it myself. I don\u2019t have a stylist or anyone who does my makeup anymore\u2014I don\u2019t want anybody else\u2019s idea of what I\u2019m supposed to be on me. I\u2019m no longer for sale.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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