After years of being silenced and sidelined by her own industry, Rose McGowan now has a platform in her upcoming E! series Citizen Rose, which chronicles her activism against sexual harassment and assault. During an appearance at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, McGowan spoke about her experience of being painted as "crazy" by the media, for speaking out in ways which have now — in the era of #MeToo — become commonplace.
"I scare because I care," McGowan said, acknowledging the Monsters' Inc. reference. "I know I make people uncomfortable...I know that." Asked about her role as a "warrior," she noted drily: "I'm really just trying to stop international rapists and child molesters. After that, I'm golden." Later in the panel, she noted to one reporter that "the narrative that's been run by your peers, a lot of them, about me for twenty years, has been erroneous. It's been a lie, and it's been cruel. It's very interesting now, all of a sudden, within four months, [the media are saying], 'Oh, this person I always thought was crazy, there's something coming out of her mouth that might make sense? Yeah. There is."
McGowan also claimed that she is currently in the process of selling her house "to pay legal bills, fighting off the monster," referring to Harvey Weinstein, who allegedly raped her in 1997.
Asked about her criticism of the Time's Up movement, McGowan said that she doesn't believe it's possible to create real change from within the existing Hollywood system: "I don't. I know the people who are behind this, I know where they have their meetings, I know who's sponsoring it. I know a lot of things. I think this is a system that's massively broken creating a Band-Aid to make themselves feel better for what they've all known about. I do not forgive."
Citizen Rose begins on January 30 with a two-hour premiere.
