Rose McGowan says her mind wandered away from her body as she was sexually assaulted by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“You float up above your body because you’re trying to figure out – my brain was actually literally when he grabbed me I was thinking, ‘Oh, I hope I still have lipstick on for the camera,’ so your brain is in another place and all of a sudden your body is like ‘What, what, what’ and this is not what I expected at 10 in the morning,” the actress told Good Morning America in promotion of her new book Brave.
The alleged assault, which McGowan described in detail for the first time in the book, took place in Weinstein’s hotel room in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
She claimed Weinstein performed oral sex on her as he pleasured himself during what was supposed to be a career-related meeting.
The actress also pointed out it was not uncommon to meet in hotel rooms, because prominent Hollywood execs would often have full suites that featured offices.
McGowan was being followed by an MTV camera crew that day for a day-in-the-life piece for the network.
She was promoting the movie Phantoms with Ben Affleck, which was produced by Weinstein.
McGowan says she saw Affleck minutes after the encounter and with tears in her eyes, told him she had just met with “The Monster” – as she refers to him in the book.
“Godammit, I told him to stop doing that,” Affleck reportedly responded.
Rose McGowan has just published a memoir entitled Brave. Photo: Filepic
The Charmed actress is adamant “everybody” in the industry knew of the producer’s behaviour.
“You really believe that?” GMA host Robin Roberts questioned.
“I know that,” McGowan responded.
“I was there. You know, people kind of think like I don’t know these people that I’m on the outside like they are looking in. Uh-uh.
“Someone asked me who I would be if I was a character in ‘Oz,’ ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I would be the curtain. I would be the one that saw both sides that no one noticed that was pretty to be used and discarded when done,” she continued. “I was the curtain and absorbed from both sides how to sell to the audience and how to be sold.”
McGowan said she is now the one pulling back the curtain.
“The truth isn’t revolutionary,” she said. “It’s just the truth.”
Weinstein paid McGowan US$100,000 to keep quiet about the assault, according to the New York Times, and in an effort to show she was not OK with that, she attempted to buy a billboard.
“It was my only form of voice,” McGowan said.
“I have a lot of people tell me: ‘You took the money.’ Let me tell you, the only perfect rape victim is a dead rape victim and that’s a fact and it’s sad.” – New York Daily News
