What Happened To Rose McGowan?
This article contains references to sexual assault that some may find triggering.
Although she's been out of the Hollywood limelight for some time, Rose McGowan played several memorable characters. She landed her breakout role in "Scream," playing Tatum, the best friend of main character Sidney (played by Neve Campbell). It was the mid-'90s, and McGowan was suddenly in demand, landing many more projects before her big recurring role on the WB Network's "Charmed."
After Shannen Doherty's character was killed off in 2001, McGowan joined the cast of "Charmed" as Paige Matthews, a fellow "Charmed One," and held the role until the show's end in 2006. Unfortunately, despite the show's massive success, she actually disliked much of her time on "Charmed," according to her memoir "Brave." "I found the repetitive days so opposite my natural rhythms that I became sick over and over. And it was at times a very stressful environment. I started to have panic attacks because of everything I was pushing down," she wrote.
Even though McGowan wasn't a fan of filming the show, it wasn't the reason she left Hollywood. Since playing a witch on television, she has completely reinvented herself and embarked on a wildly different career. So, let's dive into what happened to Rose McGowan since "Charmed" ended.
Rose McGowan got married (and then divorced)
While she was in the spotlight, Rose McGowan was in a handful of relationships, including a two-year engagement to Marilyn Manson that ended in 2001 and a two-year engagement to direct Robert Rodriguez that ended in 2009. About six years later, her marriage to artist Davey Detail became a hot topic among gossip columns. After dating for about a year, the couple got engaged in July 2013 and tied the knot in Los Angeles that October in front of 60 guests. By then, they had also planned a honeymoon in Tahiti.
Sadly, after only a year and a half of marriage, McGowan and Detail separated. Then, a year after that, they filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences." As the actor later told Gossip Cop, "I had the experience of being married and decided it wasn't for me." McGowan and Detail's divorce was finalized in November 2016, and she has yet to marry again.
She has been a source of controversy
Rose McGowan has seen her fair share of controversy, and she's received a lot of backlash for comments many have considered distasteful or ignorant. In 2014, McGowan appeared on "The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast" and went on an infamous rant about the gay community, stating gay men were more misogynistic than straight men.
"I have an indictment of the gay community right now," she said. "I'm actually really upset with them. ... You wanna talk about the fact that I have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay males, standing up for women on any level?" McGowan later added, "I see now people who have basically fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange speedo and take molly [MDMA]." She did later retract her statement and issue an apology, but the damage had already been done.
The actor ruffled a few more feathers when in 2015, she criticized Caitlyn Jenner in a Facebook post, admonishing Jenner for her "male privilege," which many deemed transphobic. Then, in 2017, McGowan appeared on RuPaul's podcast, "What's the Tee," and again made controversial statements about trans women. "They assume, because they felt like a woman on the inside ... that's not living in this world as a woman."
Rose McGowan spoke out against Harvey Weinstein
The #MeToo Movement exploded when an article from The New York Times exposed Harvey Weinstein for paying off victims of his sexual harassment over the course of several decades. Allegedly, Rose McGowan was one of his victims, and she was given $100,000 that was "not to be construed as an admission" by Weinstein, but as an attempt to "avoid litigation and buy peace," according to a legal document reviewed by The Times. McGowan later discovered that this settlement didn't involve a nondisclosure agreement, allowing the actor to tell her side of the story.
McGowan was later offered $1 million by a colleague of Weinstein's in exchange for her silence, but the she turned down the sum. Instead, she wrote in her memoir that in 1997, after she had appeared in "Scream" (which Weinstein's company Miramax produced), she was sent up to Weinstein's suite believing they were going to have a meeting about her career. McGowan claimed that he instead assaulted her in a jacuzzi. In an October 2017 interview with The New York Times, she said that a lawyer told her she would never be believed. "She was like, 'You're an actress, you've done a sex scene, you're done,'" McGowan explained.
She had previously hinted at the assault, telling BuzzFeed in 2015, "Someone blacklisted me in the industry, and I couldn't get a job in movies." However, it wasn't until Weinstein had been exposed that McGowan felt like she could speak freely.
Rose McGowan hasn't had any roles for a while
Following her successful run on "Charmed," Rose McGowan continued acting for some time. She landed a monumental double role in 2007 with Quentin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse" for which she played Pam in "Death Proof" and Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer with a gun for a leg, in "Planet Terror." Unfortunately, as of now, this seems to be the final high point of McGowan's career because she has since only worked on smaller roles in less widely seen films, done some voice acting, and cameoed in a handful of television shows like "Law and Order: SVU" up until 2017.
However, McGowan's view of the film industry has shifted dramatically since her career took off in the '90s. Speaking with The Guardian in 2018, around the time McGowan's filmography abruptly ends, she explained her current perception of Hollywood. "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," she said. Having grown up in the religious Children of God cult, which she escaped with her family when she was a teen, her frame of reference for the comparison is clear.
She released her memoir in 2018
In January 2018, Rose McGowan released her memoir "Brave," which delved into her tragic backstory in the style of a no-holds-barred tell-all. In the book, she explained her strained relationship with her parents, who raised her in the Children of God cult. McGowan also went on to elaborate on her career in a sexist industry, her hypersexualized image, and how she handled breaking away from Hollywood.
She described several of her relationships, including how she lost her first love, an older man, as a teenager. McGowan described this relationship as extremely toxic and abusive and, after leaving him, she learned that he had been murdered. Despite the alleged abuse, she wrote in her memoir, "He'll always have a piece of my heart. The case is still unsolved, but I have been trying for years to remedy that."
In addition to her many ups and downs, McGowan exposed the entire story behind her experiences with Harvey Weinstein, who she refers to as "the Monster" in her book, as well as other harassment and assaults during her time as an actor. "Brave" became a New York Times Best Seller, giving the actor a chance to tell her story in an honest and unfiltered way that was no longer controlled by the narratives of Hollywood.
Rose McGown claimed Robert Rodriguez betrayed her
Rose McGowan and director Robert Rodriguez were an item between 2006 and 2009, and she trusted him enough to divulge the details of the alleged abuse she faced at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. The two met right before Rodriguez was due to begin writing a double feature with Quentin Tarantino, "Grindhouse." After "Charmed" wrapped, he cast McGowan as the iconic lead of his "Grindhouse" feature, "Planet Terror." However, there was a turning point when "Grindhouse" was sold to Miramax. As she wrote in her memoir, it was the ultimate betrayal when "[Rodriguez] sold our film to my monster."
In a 2017 statement to Variety, Rodriguez gave his own version of events, saying that McGowan had told him Weinstein blacklisted her from Hollywood and she wasn't able to even audition for anything he film producer was a part of. "I wanted her to have a starring role in a big movie to take her OFF the blacklist, and the best part is that we would have Harvey's new Weinstein Company pay for the whole damn thing," he said. Unfortunately, the film wasn't properly promoted, and Rodriguez knows it was because he cast McGowan.
She shaved her head in an effort to minimize her sex appeal
Celebrities are always evolving their looks, and Rose McGowan is among the many stars who look nothing like they did 10 years ago. One of the most striking differences is the actor's long brunette locks, which she's since chopped off in favor of a chic pixie cut. However, the reason behind the change runs deeper than a makeover, as McGowan wrote in her memoir, "The ideal version of a woman that is sold to you by every actress in every hair commercial telling you, 'This the secret to being beguiling, the secret to getting a man to want you.' Long, glossy Kardashian-esque hair that says, 'f*** me, big boy.'" She went on to describe how she was frequently cast in roles as a sex symbol and felt embarrassed by the way she was portrayed.
In 2018, McGowan also appeared on "Jeremy Vine on 5" to promote her book, and she explained why she used an image of her head being shaved on the book's cover. "It's just a symbol of freedom. ... I just think there's something so powerful about a woman no longer wanting hair," she said.
Rose McGowan has been a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement
Ever since Harvey Weinstein was exposed, Rose McGowan has been a raw and tireless leading voice of the #MeToo Movement, whether it's in interviews, on social media, or in her memoir. After speaking out about her encounter with Weinstein in 2017, she tweeted, "Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening." McGowan also shared a series of posts accusing celebrities of having more knowledge than they claimed, including Ben Affleck and Jeff Bezos.
In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, she spoke candidly about how she felt she deserved more recognition for the Weinstein exposé that pushed the movement forward. "I've been called one of the first to speak out. No. I was the first. I called The New York Times. I blew it wide open, not them. They won the Pulitzer and I'm the one hard up for money. It's disgusting. I was kind of grossed out by how much they enjoyed being lauded," McGowan said.
She had a messy breakup with Rain Dove
Rose McGowan and non-binary model Rain Dove met after an incident at a Barnes & Noble when the actor had been heckled by a trans woman, leading to McGowan being labeled as transphobic. They stayed in touch and began dating in February 2018 after she asked Dove out to dinner. McGowan told PinkNews in January 2019, "I just feel like we met and we've been together ever since."
Unfortunately, they weren't meant to be and ended up breaking things off in June 2019, which McGowan tweeted about, saying, "Does anyone out there know how to fix a Wikipedia entry? I broke up with my ex 6 months ago and they are still listed as my partner. I would like my name to be cleared of association."
In December 2019, Dove released a video titled "EXPOSING MYSELF: Sharing Lies & Secrets," in which they admitted to cheating on McGowan twice. In the video, Dove also admitted to selling private text messages between them and actress Asia Argento to TMZ for $10,000. In these messages, Argento confessed to unknowingly having slept with a minor. McGowan hasn't said much about her breakup with Dove since her Tweet, but it's clear the two parted bitterly.
Rose McGowan launched her music career in 2020
By 2020, Rose McGowan had been out of the Hollywood spotlight for years, but she still felt the need to express herself creatively. In a statement posted to her website, she said, "When I was a small child going through tough times, I created a utopian world in my mind and I named it Planet 9. I felt safe on this invented planet of mine. I also used to wonder what sounds existed on my planet." McGowan claimed she had forgotten about her imaginary planet until many years later, when astronomers found a new planet and named it Planet 9.
With that, McGowan went on to create her debut album, "Planet 9," which was released in April 2020. She called it an "artistic endeavor" made with the help of other electronic musicians and hoped listeners would be able to use her music to meditate, find freedom, and let go. McGowan added that 20% of the proceeds her album made on Bandcamp would be going toward COVID-19 relief.
She supported Evan Rachel Wood in her claims against Marilyn Manson
Rose McGowan and controversial musician Marilyn Manson made an unlikely pairing between 1997 and 2001. They were engaged for two years but ultimately called it off due to "lifestyle differences," as McGowan later told Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live." After delving a little deeper, the actor admitted that her cocaine use was an issue in their relationship.
Manson later went on to date Evan Rachel Wood of "Westworld" fame between 2007 and 2010. In 2020, she and four other women accused the musician of sexual and physical assault. Many turned their attention to McGowan, wondering if she too had been a victim of Manson and in response, she posted a video to Instagram. "I am ... proud of Evan Rachel Wood and the others who have come forward against Marilyn Manson, my ex. When he was with me, he was not like that but that has no bearing on whether he was like that with others before or after," she said. McGowan remarked that the Hollywood cult she refers to includes the music industry and that they must be stopped.
Rose McGowan moved to Mexico and doesn't plan on returning
After several years of fighting for women's rights and speaking out against the corruption within the entertainment industry, Rose McGowan picked up and moved to Mexico City. In February 2021, she announced on "The Dab Roast" that she had received her permanent residency card. When asked if she would be coming back to the United States, she replied, "No, never."
In an interview with The Guardian, McGowan was asked why she moved to Mexico and if it had to do with putting physical distance between herself and Hollywood. "I just needed distance from stupid people, at the end of the day. It's very toxic there: the climate, the mental health. It is so sad. And I didn't want to live so close to the enemy, if you will," she stated. McGowan also added that the corruption in Mexico is minor compared to the corruption in America. In the years since she moved, McGowan's Instagram page has been filled with snaps of the sunny beach and dips in crystal blue water.
She's spoken out about her depression
Unsurprisingly, Rose McGowan has used her platform to not only discuss the societal issues within Hollywood, but also more relatable matters like mental health. In June 2021, the actor posted an update to her Instagram Story in which she revealed that she has dealt with several hardships, including depression. "Depression is an intense beast. If you've read my book I speak openly about depression, trauma, PTSD. I speak of my history with a mind that wants me to sleep forever. It blocks the sun for so many of us," she wrote.
Understandably, McGowan's personal experiences have weighed heavily on her; however, she wanted to put out the message that those who deal with mental health issues aren't alone. She added that she herself wants to know that she isn't alone as well. McGowan's message to her fans concluded with an optimistic note. "But what I know is that there will be light again," she wrote. "And the day will come when the weight of sadness will disappear. And we will raise our faces to the sun."
Rose McGowan renounced her Democratic Party affiliation
Like many Americans, Rose McGowan found herself becoming increasingly frustrated with the political climate. So much so that she gave an interview on Fox News in April 2021 and referred to the Democratic Party, which she had previously associated herself with, as a cult. "I do believe Democrats most especially are in a deep cult ... I leave the Republicans alone more because I do respect people more that are like, 'This is what we are, this is what we're about, this is what we're against,'" she explained. McGowan went on to say that Democrats are "against changing the world for the better" and that they support a system that benefits so few.
A few months later, McGowan appeared at a California rally to support Larry Elder in an attempt to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. In her speech, she announced that she was no longer a Democrat because, "Everybody who systematically traumatized, terrorized, harassed, stalked, and stole from me during my time in California and in Hollywood has been a Democrat," she said. McGowan also accused Newsom's wife, Jennifer Lynn Siebel Newsom, saying she had pressured the actor-turned-activist not to come forward with her #MeToo story and was complicit in covering up Harvey Weinstein's assaults.