But no one’s gonna find Miss Jackson, Panic! At The Disco famously sang in their 2013 “Miss Jackson” hit. They were right on the money. While the Emirates Woman
team were on set to style and direct our cover shoot – coaxing out
Janet’s more playful side in the process – far most part she was sweetly
coy and extremely private, retreating to a sanctuary far from the
madding crowd.
And so the scene was similarly set for a very intimate event for Janet Jackson in a suit at Dubai’s Armani hotel in order for her to showcase her brand sparkling new Unbreakable Diamonds collection along with business partner Paul Raps of Paul Raps New York. The VIP guests craned to catch a glimpse of one of the world’s most recognizable and celebrated woman – so famous that minders, managers and a multitude of media are de rigueur for this daintly star.
According to her business partner, Janet’s nature shines in harmony with the collection: “Janet is truly a special, gracious person,’ says Paul. ‘After having the pleasure of meeting with Janet, it was then that I realized her prestige, elegance, class and strive for perfection
were the most ideal personifications to represent the most exclusive,
beautifully exquisite line of extraordinarily designed diamond jewelry”.
Unbreakable – also the name of Janet’s latest album
and her tour that has now been put on hold – reflects all aspects of the
artist. According to Jimmy Jam, of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, American R&B songwriter and production team associate of Janet Jackson since the 1980s: “It talks about her unbreakable bond with her fans and her family, with her faith and with her friends.
And I also think it’s an album where you have to life a lot of life in
order to really be able to verbalize and lyricize those thoughts”.
Back in the Armani Hotel and a fresh-faced Janet emerges from behind closed doors with her Qatari billionaire husband, Wissam Al Mana,
who gallantly escorts her through the room; the star, dressed in a
abaya with her hair tumbling down her back like a modern-day Rapunzel,
protesting all the while in a sweet, sotto voce about how “shy” she is.
But is possible for an award-winning recording artist and actress,
who started her career as a nipper when she first appeared on stage
with the Jackson 5, to genuinely be this coy? Especially given she grew
up in the spotlight and went on to become one of the biggest-selling pop
artists in history with 35 number one hits and five Grammys. Not to mention her countless performances
in front of thousands of excitable fans and her acting roles on both
small and big screen. Plus her seminal influence on music videos that cemented her status as a pop icon. Then again, Janet as always been an enigma.
“Janet is pretty shy, but only when you
don’t know her well. I think when you know her well, she’s not shy at
all,” says Jimmy of the youngest member of the Jackson family. One of
her oldest friends, puts a slightly different spin on it: “Anybody who
has been around Janet for any period of time will tell you the same
thing… That she is humble to a fault. She will not take credit for the things she is responsible for. She will always say, ‘we did it’ instead of ‘I did it”, he says.
Of course, it’s a common myth that all
musicians and actors are extroverts. Many of the best performers are
actually very reserved and it’s tenable, that it is music – more
importantly, her music – that switches her on.
“I think music is really the power for
her; it’s why she can perform in front of people”, says Jimmy of the
ingénue turned actress turned music mainstay. “She enjoys the energy and the feedback that the audience gives
– she feels that instant recognition of a song, people singing along
with her. It’s a friendly environment and she feels she’s amongst a
group out there and performs because she feels comfortable on stage.”
And there lies the dichotomy when it
comes to her fans. On one hand she is as loyal to them as they are to
her. But she is also relishing her new-found privacy and her quieter life in the Middle East as the wife of 41-year-old Wissam who manages a Middle Eastern empire
of 55 companies involving fashion, media, engineering and real estate.
(As an interesting aside, economist Sam Wilkin writes in his book,
Wealth Secrets of One Percent that there are only 1.826 billionaires in
the whole world.) Way to go Janet.
With sources revealing that Janet never
previously considered offspring an “essential” part of her ‘fulfillment”
and international only magazine MadameNoire writing that she did not
panic about not having kids of her own due to the abundance of nieces
and nephews in her family circle, same are now suggesting that it is her
new circumstance and her role as a happily married woman which has led
to this happy – albeit unexpected – announcement.
Even her social media messages are often conundrums, littered with cryptic clues
of a far more clandestine life. While Janet never declared she’s
actually pregnant, she did announce in a video on her Twitter account
(just after out shoot) that she and her husband were “planning their
family”, which meant delaying her Unbreakable Tour. “We’re in the second
leg of the tour and there’s been a sudden change”, she said, “I have to
rest up, doctor’s orders, but I have not forgotten about you and will
continue the tour as soon as I can.”
You have to give the woman props: for all the fame, she’s remained famously private – determined that her life not become tabloid fodder.
In spite of this, or perhaps because of this, she continuously manages
to surprise us. She’s come full circle in her career, breaking away from
her father and becoming a superstar in her own right as opposed to
being known as Michael’s baby sister (she was his closest friend and
confidant – he used to call her Dunk). In spite of her public
discretion, it’s clear she still calls the shots.
“Nobody’s putting words in her mouth or telling her what to sing or how to dance or how to look or anything”,
says Jimmy. “She is in total control of that. I think you certainly see
another side of her in front of the camera, but it’s always very honest, it always is the same coming from the same heart and same soul.”
Perhaps her enigma lies in her ability
to assume multifarious identities – both in her public persona and her
behind the scenes working life. As Jimmy says: “She makes timeless
music. It’s music that’s rooted in great melodies and great lyrics and
there are many sides to Janet. There’s the rock side, like ‘Black Cat’, there’s a more sensual side like ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’, there’s the funky side with ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’ or ‘Nasty’ and songs like that. She makes it so it’s a wholeexperience and so you don’t get tired of what she does because it’s not the same thing all the time. It’s really a wide array of different songs and different tempos and different textures and all of that”.
Significantly, it’stalent that doesn’t come with an expiration date.
She’s paced herself –there’s usually a three to four year gap between
albums – which, Jimmy says, has helped her to live an exciting life
while still being able to take time off. “That makes you a complete
artist and it definitely helps your longevity.”
What’s more, she’s not yet ready to bow out.
“We can definitely expect more albums from Janet”, says Jimmy. “I say
that because of how much fun we had making Unbreakable. Going into it,
we knew what we were setting up to try to do, which was to make a great
album that spoke of creative things so you may see her do a whole lot of
different things and really kind of mixing, the different medias which
is something she does really well. I’m excited about the future for her,
but definitely would hope to be in the studio making some new music very soon.“
So while Janet’simpending motherhood
may be her focus for now, the surprise specialist still has plenty
saved up her sleeves. Until then, she plans to lead her life as anonymously as possibly. Because when you’re as famous as Ms Jackson, who can blame you from not wanting anyone to find you?
Outspoken actor talks artistic awakening, Hollywood burnout, battling "the dickheads"
Rose McGowan plays a series of surreally stylized characters in her "RM486" video.
Rose McGowan has a lot to say, and this week, she found a new way to say it with the release of a striking new music video
for her single "RM486." French electro band Punishment collaborated on
the track, and video pro Jonas Åkerlund (Madonna, Lady Gaga, Metallica)
directed in collaboration with stylist and "fashion activist" B.
Åkerlund's WHOYOUARE.
The former Charmed star is nearly unrecognizable in the
video, in which she peels layers of plaster from her body and emerges as
a naked alien, then goes on to portray five more equally stylized and
arresting characters. Yet McGowan says the characters are a composite
portrait of herself, and depict aspects of her life ranging from "Dark
Beauty" ("representative of the media perceived 'goth' period of my
life") to "Green Hair Hollywood" ("the most agitated," with a mouth
taped over her mouth) to "Art" (her "most powerful" and "rawest" self).
The song's title, too, is reflective of McGowan's views: It's a nod
to the abortion drug RU-486, with her initials swapped in. The track
bolsters McGowan's newfound status as a feminist icon, coming on the
heels of her tweet this past summer about sexist notes she encountered on an Adam Sandler movie script, a move that led to her being dropped from her agency. McGowan's directorial debut, Dawn, which was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, also deals with with feminist themes.
McGowan spoke to Rolling Stone about her turn towards music, realizing that she hates acting and outlasting "the dickheads."
How did this song come about?
I
decided about a year and a half ago I wanted to start fiddling around
with music again and do some under my own name [after previously
releasing several songs under other names]. Because I'm not in the music
world at all, it took me a little while. I found these amazing
musicians in Paris, an electro band called Punishment that just formed,
and I told them I wanted a song to drive on Mulholland to at night.
Something really astral and kind of galactic. And I was in Paris for the
fashion shows and wrote it and sang it and here we are.
What was the songwriting process like?
The songwriting process took about an hour, and it starts with some Blade Runner
dialogue, but then it goes into ... I wanted something really kind of
uplifting. "Held my hands up to the stars/Gilded lilies driving
cars/It's time to say it so I will/I can/I do/I vow to live." Which is
pretty cool, as a message. And I figure, why not layer everything into
everything? That's why the title is "RM486." It's a play on the abortion
drug RU486, which I think is very timely with all the crap that's going
on with Planned Parenthood and trying to defund them. Ugh. I just want
to take their faces and smash them into the ground. Not Planned
Parenthood — all the defunders and these proselytizers that are just ...
Anyway, I'm off on a tangent.
So the song is a sociopolitical statement as well as a personal one.
Exactly. Everything I do is. Like the movie I directed — I directed a full feature in under 20 minutes called Dawn,
and last year it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and
qualified for the Oscars this year, but it's all about what we do to
girls, and it's a big part of my life, that platform.
Music is part of it too, but also the music's just dope.
How did you come up with the characters you play in the video?
It
was just a great collaboration with the Åkerlunds' company WHOYOUARE. I
was really lucky to work with Jonas Åkerlund and B. Åkerlund on this.
Somehow, the costumes and pieces she put on me mirrored exactly what I
had wanted to create in my mind, which was basically a commentary on the
different chapters of my life, or perceived chapters if you will.
[The
characters are] all favorites of mine, except for the Hollywood one
where there's a mouth taped over my mouth and she's the most agitated.
She's got the fuzzy green hair, and that one I find the most troubling
to watch, because that equals silence. Imagine for 15 years, you go to
work, and everything that comes out of your mouth is something someone
wrote for you to say. It's very weird.
We did it all in one
18-hour day, which is punk. We just threw down. Sammy Mourabit is
probably the most incredible makeup and prosthetics person I've ever
worked with. He prepared for a week, and everybody did it for free. Just
four artists, just throwing down. There was a girl who was an assistant
on set, who said, "I've never seen someone physically go through what
you went through." There's a thing I wear of crosses, but they were like
30 pounds of crosses; they went all the way to the ground which you
can't see. The next day it was like, I had to have someone drive me home
because I had so much glitter on, and glitter behind my contacts. I
still find red glitter on me now and then. It is all about — I've
suffered for art and movies, so why not in music.
“Imagine for 15 years, you go to
work, and everything that comes out of your mouth is something someone
wrote for you to say. It's very weird.”
Speaking of suffering, how did you realize you "hated" acting, as you put it in a recent interview.
[Laughs]
I'm pretty honest. I'm honest to a fault. I hated it because it was
like a job. It was a job. It was a job that I happened to be really good
at, but it wasn't one that was really satisfying to me creatively,
because it was in service of other people. And I was okay being in
service of other people but not when they treated me badly. It didn't
make sense to keep doing that.
What's your background in, and relationship to, art and music?
My
work has always been heavily influenced by art more than anything else.
More than music and more than other movies, or videos certainly. My
father was a fine artist, my sister works for Pace Gallery, and my other
sister runs a gallery in Colorado. My other sister's a rocket scientist
but also a sculptress. So art is very — the biggest theme in my family
is art. And I didn't feel like an artist for a very long time, and it
finally clicked that I was one, and it's been full steam ahead ever
since.
How did you realize that?
It just
dawned on me one night while I was stoned, to tell you the truth. I was
like, "Hey, I'm not a commodity. Oh, wait, I'm an artist. Oh, OK, I got
this." And then literally, it's just been full-on ever since then, with
just different projects and all self-generated, and it's all been pretty
great.
That must feel amazing, the whole self-generated aspect.
Absolutely.
This town, Los Angeles, it makes you feel very much like a commodity
that's not worth much. And that's a gross feeling to have for years and
years and years. And to have that bred into your bones. Until I realized
that they were all full of shit, not me.
What's different about creating art and music, compared to acting?
Well
it's my voice, it's something from my mind and my heart, and not
something that's sent to me in an attachment for me to say. And I got
really tired of leaving my body to let something that was kind of
second-class come in. Because if you're not going to develop a character
who's three-dimensional then I have no interest. If you're a
three-dimensional person, and have a lot of dimension to you, then why
would you leave your own mind to let something else come in that's not
as interesting, frankly?
I also really just want to inspire other
people because, you know, I was talking to people at the Department of
Education and they allocate $33 million a year to arts funding in the
U.S. for schools, so if I can help make that kid in Ohio feel like
there's something weird and different and that it's okay to be weird and
different, then I'm down with that. Because that's what I was always
like growing up: weird and different. Which I am a big fan of. You just
have to suffer through the fools. It's like that Survivor show — outwit and outlast. Outlast the dickheads.
High school is the ultimate Survivor.
Try
Hollywood. After that. Great fun! High school again. It's all the nerd
guys pissed off that they couldn't get the hot girls, so now they're
gonna punish her.
What are your influences in music and directing?
For my movie [Dawn], my influences were Edward Hopper, the original Parent Trap from 1961 and the movie The Night of the Hunter, for the stress level.
As
far as musicians go, I don't know, I'm really bad at that ... It's
like, what do I have here? I have Nils Frahm, an album called Spaces;
I have a Tupac CD in front of me, which is hilarious, that it's a CD,
and I have some records. I was listening to a lot of Marlene Dietrich
last night. I bought Marlene Dietrich's record collection at auction,
which is really cool. I'm not really the most integrated with music; I
just like what I like. But pretty much, I just want to promote art and
thought.
You did some vocals on [ex-fiancé Marilyn Manson's] Mechanical Animals, and I thought I maybe saw some common influences there in the new video.
That
was really a commentary on that period: not an influence but a
commentary. There's a difference. That ["Dark Beauty"] character, to me,
I actually find her to be the most haunting and most beautiful and the
toughest to look at in some ways for people, but I think that's what's
cool about it. I mean, it was kind of more of a commentary on that time
when everyone thought I was staying at home and lighting puppy dogs on
fire, and in reality I was buying Martha Stewart online. Jadeite
glassware! So it's more of just a commentary on society's perception
rather than my actually being that.
Yeah, even now, I was struck that all these news pieces about your video called out that, "Oh, it's extremely NSFW!"
It's
a piece of art! And I know, it's very annoying that they put "NSFW,"
because it's not. I want people to see bodies in a non-sexual manner. I
was at a museum recently, and there was a sketch of a nude man, and
there was a woman behind me who said, "I would never let my daughter see
this!" And I turned to her and said, "Would you rather her see a man
with a hard penis coming at her for the first time? Is that how you
would like her to be introduced to a man's body?"
“Hollywood ... I can't. It's the number-one export of America, and this is what we're doing? It's not enough.”
What did she say?
She just bugged her eyes out at me
and walked away. But I was right. And maybe I put something in her
head, maybe it helped, I don't know. I'd like to think so. But it's
really about — it is art. The "NSFW" — ugh. It makes it kind of creepy,
and there's a lot of shaming that goes on, but I won't have it; I won't
tolerate it.
It's just so tired, all this stuff, but I'm
fighting the good fight. Also, I want to push back against the general
idea of what beauty is, because it's gotten so stale, I think. Hollywood
... I can't. It's the number-one export of America, and this is what
we're doing? It's not enough. We're doing a lot of damage.
What do you want people to take away from this song?
I
just want people to take away freedom. That you can be free. You can do
anything you want, you can create anything you want, you can be
anything you want, and it's completely okay and better to be different,
in fact. I think if we're just 10 percent more artistic in our lives,
great things can happen. That's all!
And can we expect more songs from you? What's next?
I
have one more song that's totally different, but still me singing, and
that'll probably come out in a couple months. I figure — I don't know
how music stuff is done or how things are released. The way I'm
approaching it is, if I have songs to release or a video to put out, I
will; if I have a movie to direct, I'll do that; if I have something I'm
writing, I'll write it. So I'm not a slave to any one kind of format.
It's just more expression overall. I don't even know that many musicians
or people in the music world, so I'd be down to collaborate with lots
of people if they read this! I'm totally into it.
OK, we can put out the call. "Attn: musicians ..."
Attention, musicians! If you are dope, call me!
A look at the inimitable actor’s first musical performance
Rose McGowan is done with being told what to do. Having called out the film industry for sexism and left her acting career behind, The Doom Generation star returned to Hollywood earlier this year with guns blazing – this time from the other side of the camera. After shooting her arresting directorial debut, the Sundance Award-nominated short Dawn, the actor-turned-director has teamed up with Spun director Jonas Åkerlund, enlisting his signature gothic vision for her unanticipated pop promo in the form of “RM486”.
“Not only did I not fit in, I didn’t want to fit in”
Styled by Swedish fashion maverick B. Åkerlund, each of McGowan’s theatrical guises represents a different facet of the star’s morphing persona: from alien outsider (“Not only did I not fit in, I didn’t want to fit in,” she says of her formative years) to Hollywood starlet and beyond. Each persona carries a message, with the goth confronting people’s perception of beauty: “I actually think she’s the most beautiful,” McGowan says. Here the actor-turned director talks rocking the boat and kicking up an art fuss.
This release marks your musical debut, why now? Rose McGowan:
In the last few years I’ve actually released some songs under different
names, just me pranking the public. I woke up one day and realised I
hated acting and that I’d always hated it. Imagine, its predominantly
men whose scripts get done so it was mostly a male voice coming out of
my mouth for fifteen years.
Your
film work touches on ideas of female empowerment and sexual liberation –
do you feel a responsibility to create a feminist dialogue? RM: Yes
I feel like it’s my duty and other people who have a voice, it’s their
duty as well. We’re told from when were very young: ‘don’t upset
anybody, don’t rock the boat.’ Why not? I believe in civil disruption. I
also think it’s important for bodies to be represented in a non-sexual
manner, especially women’s bodies.”
You’ve
been vocal before about the importance of nudity, why do you think it’s
important to reclaim the representation of women’s bodies this way? RM: The
body shaming that goes on in America is absurd. Recently at a museum
there was this woman behind me looking at a nude sketch of a man and she
said she’d never let her child around that, and I turned to her and
said, “Oh really? Would you like your child to first see a penis when
it’s erect and coming at her?” I don’t want to do this kind of thing but
I feel like I have to, to stimulate change. You realise when you’re
well known that you have won the public election: you are in office of a
sort, and what you say does matter.”
I am a version of all five characters in the video. All are pieces that
make up my whole — as an artist, a public figure and most importantly,
as a person. I am pushing back at the idea of who I am suppose to be, to
embrace who I want to be. Changing the idea of what beauty is and
exposing people to art in a real way is what I want to do. There is true
power in art and true power in we who believe in it. I hope you will
join me on this journey of promoting art, pushing boundaries and never
being afraid to be who you.
Hi there,
Rose McGowan here. I wanted to share these lyrics I wrote for my new song, RM486.
The song is in collaboration with the band Punishment
Paris and the video is in collaboration with WHOYOUARE. The video is
directed by the renowned Jonas Akerlund, styled by the incomparable Bea
Akerlund with prosthetics/makeup by the acclaimed artist, Sammy
Mourabit.
Video guide:
All five characters in the video are versions of me. All
are pieces that make up my whole- an artist, a public figure, and most
importantly, as a person. I’m pushing back at the idea of what I am
supposed to be, I want to expose people to art in a real way, and I want
to change the idea of what beauty is.
There is true power in art and true power in we who
believe in it.
The characters are all me and I am all of the characters. Here is a breakdown in order of appearance.
THE ALIEN:
Where I’m from and how I have always felt. I want to communicate in the purest form and she is pure.
DARK BEAUTY:
Challenging the preconceived notion of what beauty is.
Representative of the media perceived “goth” period of my life. She’s
challenging you to not look
away.
GREEN HAIR HOLLYWOOD:
The most agitated. The most over the top. Note the mouth
taped over my own mouth. This is my “Hollywood” chapter. The agitated
glamour of it all. I find her
to be the most harrowing.
NEEDLES:
The needles I wear represent my armor and shield.
RED GLITTER BOMB:
My knives are out. I have a mission and it is fierce.
ART:
The most powerful is also the rawest. I want people to
feel, the way to start that is by transmitting emotion. Feel, just feel.
So this is me. Speaking to the world in my own words, for the very first time.
Like the song’s chorus says, “we’re only here to paint colors on the sun, only here to see the fires run.”
I hope you’ll join me on my journey of promoting art and pushing boundaries.
x,
Rose McGowan
I want to wish my idol and an inspiration for me, Rose McGowan, a very happy birthday as she turns 42 on September 5, 2015.
This is a second post from me to wish Rose a happy birthday and since her last birthday on 2014, Rose has become such an incredible figure that I think needs to be respected as well. She has gave up her acting career (though I still have a hope for this to continue) and started a career mostly behind the camera by directing. I've seen few of her works, especially her directorial debut Dawn which is available on YouTube. Since that, I began to see major changes from Rose with the way she looks, talks and acts. She has changed into a different kind of person, positively. And I think more mature as a woman.
In short words, she finally speaks her own words. She found her own path. Even though she gained so much backlash and criticism, she never feels discouraged. She became a stronger person every time she knew she was criticized for her own acts which I think mostly were for good. She is basically underrated for being brave and smart, for speaking the truth and fighting for the rights. In her own words, “The awesome thing about being an artist? You can't be fired from your own mind.”
Rose McGowan has influenced myself in the way I think and act. And it's true, some people have started to brand her as a revolutionary specially in film industry and rights for women. I still have a lot to learn from her and I'm very grateful to have someone I look up to for being a successful person intellectually and the way she fights for the rights, not for being just a popular person.
Thank you so much, Rose McGowan. I support and respect you very much!
“I am a feminist and beyond. I say humanist because I am pro-humanity. We
co-exist on this planet, let's coexist together in equality.”
“I have, obviously, shit to say,” said Rose McGowan earlier this week at a suite in New York’s Edition Hotel, where she was promoting her directorial debut, the short film, Dawn. “I’m not saying it’s good stuff, but I’m saying I’ve got stuff to say.” For almost 30 minutes, McGowan and I talked about Hollywood (McGowan is best known for her roles in things like Scream, Charmed, and The Doom Generation), fame at a young age (“It fucked me up”), and the controversial statements she made last year on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast regarding misogyny amongst gay men and the state of the struggle (“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”).
Having written about those statements, I couldn’t wait to talk to McGowan about that last point specifically, and she did not disappoint. She was quick, fiery, and poised to argue but seemingly happy to explain. We hurtled through a series of topics and I’m preserving much of our conversation in the transcript below (which has been lightly condensed and edited for clarification).
But, first, here's Dawn in its entirety:
And here's Rose and me:
Gawker: Making this movie was sort of a political act for you, right?
Rose McGowan: That’s a really interesting way to couch it. You’re the first person who said so. I would agree with you. It is. I tried to make it a very layered piece. I wanted to say something about class disparity without saying it, and you can do that by just having perfect furniture and somebody who’s got dingy jeans sitting on it. And then the two men that she references in the movie are Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson, both gay. All that stuff is not on accident.
Why make a short instead of a feature? Are you dipping your toe in?
No, I was really inspired by the exercise Hemingway gave his writer friends, which was to see if they could write a full story in six words. His was “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.” That always resonated with me. I saw a lot of movies that couldn’t seem to tell a full story in two and a half hours. I wanted to see if I could do a full story in 18 minutes. It was actually just a personal challenge. I think a lot of shorts are made trying to get them made into features and I actually don’t want to make Dawn into a feature. It is what it is. It stands on its own.
In terms of content, it seems like there’s a pro-woman, if not feminist, guiding hand at work.
It’s just shining a light on something. I don’t know if that means feminist. I would hope that a man could have easily done this, too.
He wouldn’t have, though.
He wouldn’t have, that’s the thing. I mean, the sad part is that there are a lot of male writers and they’re told to write what they know and they write men. That’s how we come up with some not very complex characters.
But then the alternative is something like Top Five. Have you seen that?
Not yet.
In it is a gay character who’s ridiculed for being gay.
Literally he was a scapegoat? A punching bag?
Yeah. And it struck me: This is what happens when straight men write gay characters.
But what if I had made it? Would I have gotten reamed? Yes.
You think so?
Yes. I would never do that because my friends are men and women that happen to be gay. They’re not gay first. It’s just [about] people understanding that it’s humans first. To say Dawn is feminist, yes, but it’s because I’m a woman so it has to be, but I’m a humanist. But how you felt about seeing that gay character, imagine how I feel about seeing women in movies all the time. Or playing them.
Do you regret anything you’ve played?
Yes. (Laughs) I had a very big agent who basically did the mind-meld on me: “Do this movie about wrestling.” I threw the script in the garbage three times because that’s where it deserved to be. It was Ready to Rumble. It was a lot of money. She just didn’t care, and I mistook her for someone who was a strong woman. What she really was was a mercenary woman. And there’s a difference—and one who didn’t like me, either. A lot of agents aren’t supportive of their talent in any way. Nobody’s understood how to represent me, which is why, other than film publicists, I currently have no representation other than my lawyer. I don’t need it. She said, “If you do this movie for Warner Bros, they’ll stick you in the next Clint Eastwood movie.” OK, I do the stupid movie, I’m trying to have an out-of-body experience the whole time, like, “How is this happening to me? I can’t believe I agreed to do this.” And I did it, I brought it, ‘cause that’s what I do. And it was silly and, whatever, harmless. But not really—it was really harmful to me.
Psychically?
In my psyche, it was very harmful for me. And I was so deeply uncomfortable. And of course, I come to find out that the Clint Eastwood people didn’t know me from Adam. She just straight-up lied. And that was very common in my history.
I assume there’s no coincidence that you’re making your foray into filmmaking in your 40’s...
Not at all.
Really? Because 40 is when they say...
You don’t understand my life, first of all. I spent the last seven years dismantling...I have a very big life beyond what people see on the outside, including you. And that’s understandable because I never told anybody anything. I’m not one of those people that goes on TV and gives everybody updates on my current movements. I’m a businesswoman, I own a lot of businesses, a lot of real estate, I’m kind of a baller in many other worlds. This one I came back to a year and a half ago, like, “Oh wait, I’m an artist. Hey, OK, I got this.” Has nothing to do with my age, nothing to do with disappearing roles. I disappeared from the roles long before they disappeared from me ‘cause I didn’t care. There was no reason to care. I was bringing it and nobody else around me was. I worked with a lot of great directors, possibly on their lazier projects. Acting has nothing to do with what I’m directing. But does your time in Hollywood have anything to do with it?
No.
There’s a dearth of female directors...
No. It’s completely coincidental.
Really?
It just happened to be that I was like, “Oh.” The problem for me was that I would get on set and I would be shocked at the house my character was in or shocked that these are the actors that are across from me, shocked that these are the clothes I’m wearing. “What is happening?” It was because I directed the whole thing in my head. I was just in the wrong job. It’s not really that dramatic. I was just in the wrong job.
A large part of it was I was discovered and within a year and a half, I was famous. And when you spend your life playing and being other people, it’s fucked up. You’re only you in your off time. And when I got stuck on a TV show, that was about 15 hours a day for five years straight, other than like a month and a half in the summer. I was so exhausted, there’s not a lot of time for personal development.
I don’t feel like sticking myself in a movie. If I had the motivation I believe you possibly felt I had, would I not be sticking myself in the movie? Creating a part for myself? I have not. The stereotype is that there are no good roles...
But that doesn’t even matter to me. I don’t want to act, so it doesn’t matter.
You accepted the New York Film Critics Circle award for Jennifer Kent and talked about the lack of female directors, so I figured you were seeing a space and stepping up.
I’m stepping up because no one else is. There are some, they’re starting to get louder, but I realized as an artist you’re in an un-fireable position. And actually we all are. All of us humans cannot be fired from being ourselves. We can be fired from our jobs, we can not be hired for a job, but we can’t be fired. We’re us. And we’re legion. And it’s an amazing feeling and an amazing, empowered feeling.
Is it an amazing feeling being Rose McGowan?
Right now it is. I earned it. I fucking earned it. I had a very colorful life way before Hollywood. I spent my life surviving. And I’m not in survival mode right now and that’s an amazing thing.
You said if you’d done the gay character in Top Five, you would have been reamed for it. Do you think you were reamed last year [for your comments about gay male apathy]?
That was bullshit. Why?
Why was that bullshit? Because I was actually speaking very specifically about a group of guys in West Hollywood that were mad at me. I was not speaking about all gays. That’s dumb. They can’t all fit on a float, I know this. That was hatcheted up, and I think it’s ‘cause I went after, honestly, some leaders in the gay community and so as payback they kind of hatcheted up what I said, and I was like, “Really? What’s what you’re going to do?” And the problem is now, there are so many people that are keyboard activists. “I feel pious because I don’t go to the Beverly Hills Hotel.” You know what, why don’t you feel pious by not going to a movie and not getting gas? Why don’t you feel pious about [Richard] Branson who’s like, “I’ll never let any of my Virgin employees stay there,” and then he just did a huge deal with Brunei? So, shut up. The reality is the Beverly Hills Hotel is a living history museum. We don’t have many of those in Los Angeles. My thing was about saving it, and also, duh: don’t protest it, take it over. It was pretty ballsy to have a party with 100 gay guys and women there and have them make out in the hallway. Those pictures I sent to the sultan.
[The Beverly Hills Hotel stuff] you’re referencing is part of the podcast that didn’t get passed around—the pull quotes [about gay misogyny, floats, and molly] were what caused the stir.
Of course. And the pull quotes were cut up, as they do. It was shocking at first. It’s very weird to have a phone where you can touch an app and all this hate or whatever comes through. And it’s like, “You’re not even understanding—I’m speaking about a very specific group of people who are very 1 percent.” How many people are really protesting the Beverly Hills Hotel? What percentage of the 99 versus the 1 percent is feeling pious because they’re not going and getting a $35 cheeseburger? I don’t care about the cheeseburger. I care about the employees and I care about the place itself. It’s living and breathing. There’s so much history there and I’m basically an amateur Hollywood historian. I’m on the board of the Film Noir Society. I also did a show on TCM. I’ve studied film since I was 4 with my father. The classic film stuff is in my blood. So for me, it was really just about that. And it was also about the gay community...maybe needs to be shook up a little. Why are there sacred cows? These are men first. So why would they be different? And in fact, they can put a lot of their lives together completely excluding women. I know they relate on the underdog part, but what happens when you’re no longer the underdog?
I think that gay people are still underdogs largely per the legislation of our country.
Largely. Of course.
But it’s like you were saying, your movie’s feminist because you’re a humanist...
Right, so there’s a gay struggle because it exists because you are. It will cease. It will come. It’s the fastest growing civil rights movement in United States history, and I’m fucking proud of how far you guys and women have come. I’m fucking proud of it, but you forget the women. Believe me, I hear the gays, and I’ll use the word slander... [from] my friends, my gay friends...I was a runaway taken in by three trans women and a stripper named Tina, and I grew up protecting the kids on the playground. I was an outsider. I was a weirdo. I was Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family, basically—the Addams Family of intellectuals and activists. We were the weirdos on every block everywhere, and that was fucking great because I didn’t bother fitting in. My mother asked me if I wanted to assimilate more and I said, “Look at their shoes. No.”
To have people that are not fully developed in their brains torture other people just because they challenge something, just by existing. That’s not fair and that’s not OK in my book, so I’ll fight for them. I was out there, believe me, the night of Prop 8, marching. And I thought that was mishandled. There’s so many things, but there is a pay-it-forward part of this that needs to be happening.
Did you like what Patricia Arquette said after the Oscars?
Of course I did. Because she’s right.
I thought she was right, too. A lot of people felt like she wasn’t being intersectional enough...
Why should she be? Are you guys?
No, I’m not saying, “I’M interviewing YOU.” I’m saying I’m interested in what women (and people of color) do. My job is not activist but it is to be aware, and I care...
And I appreciate that. I do my small part.
Right. It’s a small part and it can be bigger.
I think that’s the bigger point, there’s this utter selfishness in contemporary American culture...
That’s the thing! That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I want: people to be 10 percent better. Ten percent better versions of themselves. That’s it. If people were just 10 percent better, including myself, in all areas, in heart, in soul, in design, in thought...like, go one step beyond the obvious. And then, you’ll have a lot more understanding of other people and I think the world will actually change. And it’s not that hard. And the paying it forward to me—I hate that term, but I don’t know what else to call it—is, for me when it hit a moment, was the vote. I was waiting for the NAACP, I was waiting for the gay rights leaders, I was waiting for them to denounce that vote on the senate floor voting down equal pay for women. I’m like, “Do you not represent women ostensibly? Do they not pay your dues as well?” Where are you? That’s not OK. So I was angry that day [of the podcast], but I was also angry about being misinterpreted by a group of people from West Hollywood primarily, so that’s who I was talking to. I’ve had some time to think about it and maybe I’m right. Not for everybody. Not with a huge, sweeping generalization. I have gay friends who donated to NARAL and Planned Parenthood on my behalf. Like I said, everyone can’t fit on a float. I wanna be a on a float, I’ve been on a float, I know how many people can fit on a float. I haven’t been on a float in 10 years.
I’ve been on a float, and I’ll rock that shit. I haven’t done molly in a year, either.
It doesn’t work on me. I’ve tried. It sucks. It’s so unfair. I think I was the only sober person at Coachella. I wanted to kill myself.
The older I get the more wary I am of doing a drug that’s going to fuck up my next day, my next two days, my next three days.
That’s the thing, in like 10 years or whatever, you have no idea. But my father...one of the things I champion is I’m on the board of the Daughters of Pulmonary Fibrosis. It’s a horrible disease that killed my dad. He was a vegan for 25 years, hiked two hours a day way before it was popular. He would put our cereal in brown paper bags. Never owned a microwave. And he got a horrible lung disease that is idiopathic, so it’s not caused by anything in specific, and it killed him. And he was a giant of a man. It was like watching the lion of the pride go behind the bush to die. It was intense.
That was part of the last seven years for me. Recovering from being paralyzed in my right arm. Recovering from a car accident. Basically, everything had to break in order for me to reform, to become myself not [only] in the off period. Imagine everyday you go to work, you’re saying something someone else wrote for you to say. You’re not even speaking for yourself. It’s very strange. I have, obviously, shit to say. (Laughs) I’m not saying it’s good stuff, but I’m saying I’ve got stuff to say.
How much did being a young famous person fuck you up?
It fucked me up. It didn’t fuck me up in terms of turning into a cliche. I was never arrested, I never did any of that stuff. I had always wanted to go dance on a table in a red dress but because of the environment at the time—the internet was crazy, it was the Lindsay Lohan era—I just left. I was like, “Peace out, losers. This is not my bag. I’m not playing this game. I will not be for sale.” I had a publicist that was like, “Why don’t you call me one day when you’re looking cute?” I was like, “Excuse me?” She said, “We’ll send our photographer down so we can get coverage, you know if you’re in a store and you look cute.” I was like, “What?” I thought about it for about two seconds and was like, “I absolutely cannot do that.” My father used to collect Edward S. Curtis prints and he did a lot of amazing prints of Native Americans and studied that culture. My father did as well. They say they feel the camera steals your soul. So I’m here to steal others. But you’re not going to continue the cycle?
No. I never did, really. My thing was always like, “You want me to play on the red carpet? Let’s fucking play. Let’s go hard. You want me to play? You want me to be your show pony? I’ll be your fucking show pony.” Why not? Why is everything a sacred cow? I realized that all of these rules that are put down for us, they’re all illusions. They’re not there. I’m not saying, “Fuck you,” to the rules, the rules simply don’t exist. That’s what irritates me when people complain about societal expectations. It’s like...
I don’t care! It’s like Madonna says: I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me. If this is how you want to approach marriage, do it. Don’t put it on me. If this is how you want to approach your religion, do it. Don’t put it on me. Whatever your deal is, do it. Keep your side of the street clean and leave mine alone, ‘cause your thought doesn’t count unless I invite you in and maybe we can exchange thoughts and be better and that’s amazing.
Actor and director made headlines after railing at a misogynist casting call for an Adam Sandler film, but says Wenzel had already left agency Innovative
Rose McGowan has confirmed her agent Sheila Wenzel was not responsible for “firing” the actor and director in the wake of her critical comments regarding sexism in Hollywood.
It is understood Wenzel left agency Innovative prior to McGowan’s infamous tweet on June 17, in which she railed at a casting note calling for actors to show off their cleavage with push-up bras. She later revealed the call was for an unspecified Adam Sandler film.
McGowan made headlines around the world on Thursday when she tweeted that she had been “fired” by her “wussy acting agent” for pointing out “the bullshit in Hollywood”. The Hollywood Reporter later named her agents as Sheila Wenzel and Steve Muller at Innovative Artists.
I just got fired by my wussy acting agent because I spoke up about the bullshit in Hollywood. Hahaha. #douchebags#awesome#BRINGIT
However, the actor has since taken to Twitter to clarify that Wenzel was not involved in her departure, calling her “a wonderful agent that ceased working with Innovative before my firing”. Wenzel also appeared to show support for McGowan on Twitter, retweeting a post in which the actor said the wonderful thing about being an artist was that “you can’t be fired from your own mind”.
Sheila Wenzel is a wonderful agent that ceased working with Innovative before my firing. She's a good, strong woman I'm proud to know.
Meanwhile, a report in Variety quotes a source at Sandler’s production company Happy Madison who denied all responsibility for the offending casting note. “They were not aware the casting director sent this note out,” the source said. “They felt it was completely inappropriate and have made sure that it has not been sent out again.”
Wenzel had also worked with Amanda Seyfried and Tomorrowland’s Britt Robertson at Innovative. On Thursday afternoon the under-fire agency issued a statement to the Hollywood Reporter confirming the departure. “Sheila Wenzel, Rose McGowan’s primary agent, parted ways with Innovative before McGowan’s tweet yesterday,” the statement reads. “Wenzel was not the primary agent for Amanda Seyfried and Britt Robertson.”
McGowan received support on Twitter yesterday from the Oscar-winning actor and feminist Jessica Chastain, who said her treatment confirmed “the misogyny underpinning the industry”.
As do I. Her treatment confirms the misogyny underpinning the industry. She should be celebrated for speaking out.👏 https://t.co/yUyO0LXkFd
"I just got fired by my wussy acting agent because I spoke up about the bullshit in Hollywood," the actress tweeted Wednesday.
Rose McGowan appears to be changing agents.
In a Twitter message posted June 17, the Charmed actress criticized the wardrobe description for a part in a film that she received an audition script for. She said the forthcoming film stars a male actor whose name rhymes with "Madam Panhandler," and she later confirmed to E! that the star is Adam Sandler.
She pointed out that actresses auditioning for the role were told to wear a "black (or dark) form-fitting tank that shows off cleavage (push-up bras encouraged). And form-fitting leggings or jeans."
On Wednesday, McGowan tweeted that she had been dropped by her agent following the flap.
"I just got fired by my wussy acting agent because I spoke up about the bullshit in Hollywood. Hahaha. #douchebags #awesome #BRINGIT," she tweeted.
McGowan, who has recently appeared on Crackle's Chosen and ABC's Once Upon a Time, had been repped by Sheila Wenzel and Steve Muller at Innovative Artists. Wenzel and Muller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McGowan's tweets can be seen below.
casting note that came w/script I got today. For real. name of male star rhymes with Madam Panhandler hahahaha I die pic.twitter.com/lCWGTV537t
McGowan, 41, who recently made the jump to directing with the critically acclaimed Sundance short Dawn, has described her reasons for making the initial comment in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“It was just so dumb,” she said. “I was offended by the stupidity more than anything. I was offended by the fact that went through so many people’s hands and nobody red flagged it. This is normal to so many people. It was probably even a girl that had to type it up. It’s institutionally OK.
“The part that made me laugh was where it said, ‘Make sure you read the script so you understand the context of the scene,’” said McGowan. “That was the part that made me laugh the hardest.”
McGowan said she was “not trying to vilify Adam Sandler”, but added: “Although someone did tell me that when he did his Netflix deal, he said, ‘I signed with Netflix because it rhymes with Wet Chicks.’ I mean, what? What in the fuck is going on? No!”
The actor, who will make her feature film directing debut on the upcoming thriller The Pines, said she had battled Hollywood sexism for more than two decades.
“When I did my first film, I was told by my agent that I would need to have long hair so men in this town would want to fuck me and hire me,” she said. “That was said to a 17-year-old.”
Tired of Hollywood's misogynistic attitudes towards female actors, Rose McGowan has quit acting to make films that tell women's stories.
As her debut short-film Dawn, is set to be released on June
22 on YouTube we met with Rose McGowan and discussed her new vocation
as a film director, the story behind her upcoming first feature film The Pines,
and her escape from Hollywood's status quo of misogyny. And as it turns
out, her new professional journey is far more personal than one could
imagine.
First things first, let's discuss your short-film debut, Dawn, the tragedy of a teenage girl... Dawn
is about growing up as a young woman in the 60s, experiencing first
love and femininity, but it is also about asking what happens when we as
a society, with maternal influences, bind our daughter's hands? How we
give them no defense mechanism at all-we only say 'no, you can't do
this', without explaining why. But it also questions the idea of
masculinity, the two men that Dawn idolises are Robert Hunter and Rock
Hudson, now known as gay actors, but at the time, they would have been
her teenage dream. I also wanted to question class disparity by putting
an emphasis on the material contrast between the working class and the
middle class--for example, the condition of Dawn's family car which is
brand new, versus the boy's car, who works at a gas station, which is
much older. I say a lot without having to hit anybody over the head. So
it's not a coming-of-age story per se, it's rather a cautionary tale.
What about the casting, how did you chose your actors?
I
didn't want anybody to look like an actor from L.A. I got Tara Barr to
play Dawn, her face doesn't have this innocent baby-fat anymore. As for
the male lead role, I was looking for somebody who could embody a
paedophile, a victimiser, a manipulator capable of gently scrambling
Dawn's brain.
Dawn was screened during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. How did people react?
My
favourite reaction was from one lady who told me that she threw up
after watching it-for me it was a compliment. It was very stressful to
her-not because there's any gore, because we don't really show any
violence—but I think Dawn affects women of a certain age group, the generation of women who grew up in the 60s.
Why did you chose to focus on the 60s in particular?
Well the
60s are a very weird time for women. Even the sexual revolution, which
came towards the end of the decade, was still benefitting to patriarchal
culture. I mean, by the end of the 60s, you weren't considered as cool
unless you were into free love, but five years earlier you'd been taught
to only please a man. It was a very schizophrenic time for women, and I
wanted to study that and express it through Dawn.
The way women perceive themselves - is this your principle priority at the moment?
Women-and
the way women look at each other and feel about themselves-are at the
core of my work. I was looking back on my own career and I realised that I
was turned into a commodity, and one that I didn't participate in or
sell very well. I felt very uncomfortable about making myself into that
commodity. The male gaze affected me a lot, most of the time, when you
see a woman on screen, she proceeds with the eyes of the men that filmed
and directed her; she sees herself that way instead of having her own
perception. And I've been seeing that way for years-I'm not blaming
anybody, I was part of the Hollywood machine-but I'm glad that my own
life experiences and empirical evidences made me think and act in a
different way. The only way to get beyond this is to leave the gender
part out of filming-you have to show people the middle. That it's not
only always about men versus women or women versus men. For me, it's not
even about focusing on a female-centric perspective, but rather about
developing a story-centric one. I hope that comes through in Dawn.
The Pines, your debut feature film, is currently in pre-production. Can we get a little sneak-peek of the plot?
It's
set in 1971—it looks like I'm obsessed with period films, but I'm not.
It's about a mother-daughter relationship. The mother used to be in a
mental institution, where she committed suicide, and her daughter is in
that same mental institution and is told to leave, but she actually
doesn't want to leave, she feels safe there. Then, she gets taken in by a
family of healers... and that's all I can tell for now. I will start
the movie very desaturated, without colour, and as her mind gets
healthier, the colour will evolve and get brighter… I basically want to
question reality through visual elements.
Do Dawn or The Pines somehow reflect your own life experiences? Or is everything pure fiction? I
use the women in my films as substitutes for what I want to say. I was
institutionalised when I was young-not through any fault of my own, I
had a step-father who wanted me out, and I was put in hospital from
which I escaped. But the subject was very intriguing to me, as I met
people there who felt more comfortable in the hospital and were
completely afraid of the outside world. And I understood that, because
for 7 years I quit acting, largely, and traveled compulsively, and
ended up rattling around an empty house in Los Angeles. It was my
version of the hospital, I was getting well in there, I could recover
from a lot of personal issues, including my car accident, the death of
my father, and many other things that happened to me. So I related to
this script about a girl that is trying to find her own sanity. For me
it took all of these things to get me out of acting.
Were you truly fed up with acting? Don't get me
wrong, I loved it, but let's put it this way: it's very hard to think
about other jobs when you're discovered standing on a street-corner at
18. I realised that my favourite part of being on set is being on set -
leading, directing and running things, it's my personality. My brother
used to call me Hitler!
Oh wow, that's something...
My
job as an actor was to take the audience on a journey, and now, as a
director, it's just a broader version of that. I used to be part of a
universe as an actress, and as a film director, I'm defining that
universe.
Did you feel trapped in Hollywood, and unable to express your own vision?
My
brain needs a lot of stimulation, and as an actor you often don't get
any. You need a good memory, a lot of stamina, emotion, and hopefully
intelligence-it has great thought but it doesn't require it. Imagine if
for 15 years, the only thing you've ever said is what somebody wrote for
you to say. You're paid to be like somebody else. I actually grew up in
my spare time, when I wasn't being other people, when I could focus on
my extracurricular activities, such as lobbying on behalf of the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), or working on a new web-platform
for curated creative experiences, and on a music project, among many
other things. What gets said and done in that town, especially towards
women, is disgusting. There's an omnipresent ownership of women. Once, I
had an agent who told me not to speak very much in meetings, because it
was intimidating to men-and she was a woman! Or another example, three
years ago, I was considering coming back to Hollywood when I met my
husband, and was about to sign with a new manager-and that guy stuck his
tongue in my throat after the meeting. I just reacted by saying
''C'mon! Is this still happening? Still? You just showed me a picture of
your 9-month-old baby! But I will out you at some point. I've got a
list.'' I always try to take everything with humor and with a punch in
the nose for them. Mainstream America doesn't get me, but that's cool,
because I don't get them either, so at least we have something in
common.
Interview ERICA RUSSELL Stylist Assistant BECCA GRIFFIN Makeup SONIA RESHETNIKOVA
Ever since Rose McGowan made her scree debut back in 1992, the effortlessly comedic and seductive actress has become a sort of cult queen, known for her tongue-in-cheek wit, bad-girl-meets-bombshell attitude, and for playing some of the most iconic characters in our American pop culture canon.
It’s difficult to accurately pinpoint McGowan’s most iconic role. For many, it was the starlet’s turn as Amy Blue in Gregg Araki’s 1995 dark comedy The Doom Generation. Others look to homicidal high-school clique queen Courtney of 1999′s post-Heathers, pre-Mean Girls teen classic, Jawbreaker. Then again, there’s always Tarantino’s one-legged go-go dancer Cherry Darling, the heroine of 2007′s Planet Terror. And did I mention Paige from TV’s Charmed?
This past year, however, McGowan took on an entirely new role, one which she hadn’t tried her hand at before: director. Released in early 2014, Dawn – an atmospheric short film about a teenage girl growing up among the social suffocation of the 1960s – ushered in McGowan’s official directorial debut. There has already been Oscar buzz circling the film.
In celebration of her career-defining work on Dawn, I spoke with the pop culture icon and multi talented artist about feminist issues, her passion for music, and finally finding her voice in filmmaking.
Can you talk a little about Dawn and the conception of the film? Dawn is my first film. I wanted to make a full feature in 18 minutes. It’s set in 1961 and explores what happens when society binds the proverbial hands of a young girl, leaving her defenseless. My great friends, Joshua Miller & Mark Fortin, wrote it for me and they simply said, “It’s time for you to direct.” And I did.
There are some intense themes and messages regarding women’s voices and empowerment in the film. How did you decide to explore these themes for your first directorial venture? I wanted to say something important. The screenwriters wanted to say something important. There’s enough triviality on-screen, and I’m not particularly interested in bringing more. I am, and always have been, very political. I feel like it’s my duty to speak up for those without a voice. A lot of that gets me in trouble but I don’t much care about that.
Were there any particular challenges you had to overcome as a director during filming the project? Not really. There were just minor emergencies here and there, but I’m good at putting out fires.
Creatively, how does filmmaking compare to acting for you? For me, creativity lives the mind. Directing has me firing on all cylinders. Acting is largely emotional for me so my brain wasn’t getting enough of a workout. It took me a long time to identify what was wrong in my life.
You’ve talked about filming Charmed and how intense it was. How do you find the balance between work and life? How do you prioritize? I didn’t have any balance during the Charmed period. I don’t think I’ll ever do a schedule like that again. I prize my freedom above all else and I need to honor that!
You have a very strong feminist voice. How do you view the state of things for women currently in our society? What do you think needs to change immediately? The list is too long for this interview! I think we need to collectively start viewing each other as humans instead of just a sex. Compassion for one another is key and to stand up for women if you’re a man.
I feel like your role in Jawbreaker was resurrected a bit with your appearance in Charli XCX’s video. How did that come about? I got a call and just went to film. She’s a cool one, that Charli!
I know that you have been passionate about music for a long time. Does music play a big role in film-making, or even acting, for you? Oh yes, completely. All you have to do is turn the sound off on your TV and play a song. You’ll see how it transforms the tone of the work entirely.
Do you have any plans for an official Rose McGowan music release anytime soon? Yes! I’m working on it now, actually!
What’s next for you, Rose? What are you looking towards over the horizon? My autobiography, music, writing a screenplay, and directing more films. It’s all happening! It’s a very exciting time for me.
Even her social media messages are often conundrums, littered with cryptic clues
of a far more clandestine life. While Janet never declared she’s
actually pregnant, she did announce in a video on her Twitter account
(just after out shoot) that she and her husband were “planning their
family”, which meant delaying her Unbreakable Tour. “We’re in the second
leg of the tour and there’s been a sudden change”, she said, “I have to
rest up, doctor’s orders, but I have not forgotten about you and will
continue the tour as soon as I can.”
“Nobody’s putting words in her mouth or telling her what to sing or how to dance or how to look or anything”,
says Jimmy. “She is in total control of that. I think you certainly see
another side of her in front of the camera, but it’s always very honest, it always is the same coming from the same heart and same soul.”
Significantly, it’s talent that doesn’t come with an expiration date.
She’s paced herself –there’s usually a three to four year gap between
albums – which, Jimmy says, has helped her to live an exciting life
while still being able to take time off. “That makes you a complete
artist and it definitely helps your longevity.”
