While Rose McGowan is known for taking on edgy roles in the films like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse and the hit TV series Charmed, she says she only recently found her true calling, behind the camera.

“Directing wasn’t particularly challenging, I find acting more challenging,” McGowan told FOX411 ahead of the Thursday night Sundance Film Festival screening of her directorial debut short film, “Dawn.” “I’m used to handling a lot. I run a tight ship. I find acting harder because I have no control in that. I kept waiting for the panic attack to happen while directing, but it just didn’t… I like acting, but if I never act again, I’ll be okay.”

Written by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller, who McGowan first met when she skipped school as a 14-year-old to play a movie extra, “Dawn” is centered on a quiet teenager living in a Kennedy-era America who longs for something or someone to free her from her sheltered life. The girl soon meets a boy at the local gas station who gets more from her than he anticipated.

Unlike many actors, McGowan insists that she doesn’t suffer from insecurity issues.

“I’m a very secure person. I know I’m a good actress, I’m solid,” she continued. “But I think as a director, you can create a world rather than just be in a world. And who doesn’t want to create a world?”

McGowan is slated to start directing her her first feature-length film in a few months. She said it will bea dark comedy illuminating what women do to women in the entertainment industry.

“I don’t want it to look like a Kardashian reality house, it needs to be a Richard Meyers house,” she explained. “It’s a commentary on how women treat other women. Women don’t help other women in this industry; it sucks because men don’t help women either.”

And over the course of her 22-year Hollywood career, the 40-year-old star said little has changed in the way of women working together.

“I would love to change that somehow,” McGowan added. “That would be magical.”