Evan's Blog

McGowan at "Dawn" premiere at Sundance.

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.”

Source: Fox News

When the time came for Rose McGowan to direct her first project…she lost the rights to the script. In a scramble, two friends—M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller—wrote a short for her, which was made into “Dawn,” about a sheltered teen looking to break out of her little bubble. Now after a lot of hard work, the film will be screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

“I told them the ending scene I wanted and the last line I wanted, and they ran with it and delivered a beautiful script,” McGowan says. And that they did. Dawn is a particularly haunting short film wherein a happy, perfect world turns dark, and leaves the audience wanting more.

McGowan starred on Charmed for many years, and in the Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse films, Death Proof, and Planet Terror, but with Dawn, she's finally made her directorial debut. Her vision for herself as a director is modeled after the work of David O. Russell, David Fincher, and the great Billy Wilder.

The established star discusses her passion for film, and what she’s learned from directing.

There’s nothing like working on your own vision. McGowan didn’t always want to direct, but she’s always known that she has many stories to tell. “It’s cool to be part of somebody else’s vision but for me, it was just a really motivating factor—I have a strong voice and I would really like to create my own world and I’m just kind of tired of being in somebody else’s,” she says. In regards to what part was most enjoyable about her directoral debut, McGowan says, “the freedom to finally speak for myself.”

Attention to detail pays off. Because “Dawn” takes place in the past (assumedly the 1950s), McGowan knew that it needed actors who didn’t have modern faces. “I wanted people that would be more period correct and specific. I have a pet peeve when I see very modern looking actors in period pieces,” she says. “I worked really hard to find actors that, not only were really, really good actors, but that also looked like they could be in any time.”

You can learn from your actors. “Dawn” stars some younger, lesser known actors who might lack in fame but not in talent. Tara Lynne Barr stars as the mesmerizing and delightful lead, Dawn, and Reiley McClendon as Charlie, the character you want so badly to not take the dark turn that he does.

McGowan says that Barr brought things to the role that she herself would not have thought to bring. “I think I’ve often really taken for granted what I do on the acting side of it, and I hope that I’ve done that for somebody else—just elevated it or brought little things to a part that they hadn’t thought of originally,” she says. “It’s just magical watching actors create that stuff, and so it was really cool to be on the other side and watch these actors play their own symphony.”

If you want to do something, just do it. Yes, like the Nike ad, as McGowan playfully points out. The actor/director says if you want to direct, you just need to go do it. “There’s no reason why your voice isn’t as important or doesn’t deserve to be heard as much as the director who’s directing you. The only difference is that that person just got up and did it,” she says. “It’s important to encourage people, especially women, to do it and be the captain of their own ships, and to know it’s OK to own your own power.”

This won’t be the last we see of McGowan as a director, who admits to having never seen a short film until about two months ago. She says that to her, “Dawn,” running at 17 minutes, wasn’t so much a short as it was a “really cut to the bone, proper film.” The star says she has a feature she would really like to do, and if it’ll be anything like “Dawn,” then it’s certainly something to look forward to.

Source: Backstage

"Dawn" marks Rose's directorial debut.

Gregg Araki’s cult classic The Doom Generation premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, the acting debut of Rose McGowan. It seems very fitting that she is returning to Park City for her directorial debut Dawn, which is screening in the Shorts Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Dawn follows a quiet young teenager who longs for something or someone to free her sheltered life.

Going behind the camera: Rose even has stated that she felt more comfortable directing than acting.

Best known for her roles in Charmed, Planet Terror/Death Proof, and “Nip/Tuck“, McGowan has had a solid career as an actress. But she soon found that she wasn’t quite satisfied with simply acting, and decided it was time to go behind the camera. “I’m not sure why I haven’t directed before,” explained McGowan. “I’m a cinephile, film archivist, and a designer–I live and breathe film—all the things that go into being a director. Instead of just being in someone else’s world, I wanted to create my own world.”

For her first project, McGowan was planning to direct a story by Flannery O’Connor but lost the rights at the last minute. Her old friend Josh (who hooked her up with her first job as an extra on a film in Seattle when she was 14) came up with a story with his writing partner, Mark Fortin.

“Josh said, ‘It’s time.’ I told them what I wanted the last line to be, and they wrote the story. And it was done.”

I asked McGowan what surprised her the most about directing. Without hesitation she replied, “That I wasn’t nervous or scared. I kept waiting for that feeling to happen and it never did. With acting, I am always been scared up until they call ‘action’. And I still am when acting today. I still am. But not with directing.”

"Dawn" follows a quiet young teenager who longs for something or someone to free her sheltered life.

For a list of screening times for Dawn and other festival films, visit the Sundance 2014 official site.

Source: IMDb Blog

Rose McGowan moves intuitively around her LA home in this tender portrait by Marlene Marino, shot earlier this year when the photographer captured the American actress for the latest issue of lifestyle title Apartamento. The Brian De Palma and Quentin Tarantino favorite made her name in tongue-in-cheek slasher Scream and supernatural series Charmed, and established her cult status in director Gregg Araki's 1995 comedy thriller The Doom Generation, which saw the pin-up entangled in a sordid ménage à trois. Yet shooting today’s short was a strict case of ‘Two’s company.’ Having met through director Ridley Scott’s Black Dog Films—set to release McGowan’s directorial debut Dawn—the actress and Marino bonded over a shared attitude towards beauty. “Marlene and I were just celebrating femininity,” she says of the visceral short that is soundtracked by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, who previously scored Shane Meadows’ This Is England. “I think people can rise higher than the consensus of what is considered sexy; our only objective was to do something natural. I didn’t act, I just flowed into it.”

Rose McGowan Dances Au Naturel in the Privacy of Her Californian Hideaway

What was it like to see yourself in this completely uninhibited state?
Rose McGowan: It was really transformative: it actually made me cry. It was born out of reclaiming my own ideas of what beauty is. I have realized that I don’t have to be bound by the “rules” here in Los Angeles or Hollywood. It is me, but not an artificial version.

What’s next for you?
RM: I’m going to direct my first feature film, taking things I borrowed from Marlene. I’m also making a show about art and pornography. It will be custom-made porn but not in the kind of way that you’ve seen or that you think of it.

Is that in production?
RM: I just shot the teaser for it and in it I’m wearing a strap-on. It’s pretty balls-out, I’m not gonna lie—it’s going to look insane.

What’s your experience of pornography?
RM: I have never liked it and don’t find it sexually interesting: I don’t like their hair, makeup, or acting. How am I supposed to get excited by something that I think is cornball and not beautiful?

So what would you consider to be sexy?
RM: Oh I don’t know, maybe two people in a lovely field on a farm, shot like Terence Malick.

Source: Nowness

Queen Latifah and Rose McGowan

The actress is keeping her dad's legacy alive and making a contribution to the world in his name.

Rose McGowan's life was changed the day her father was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis at the age of 61. The illness is caused by the buildup of tissue on the lungs, which gives it the appearance of being scarred.

After dealing with the tough loss of the death of her father, Rose became a spokesperson for the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis and is determined to turn her loss into hope for all those diagnosed with PF in the future. "None of us can effect change on our own, but as a united group we can use our numbers to build national awareness of this terrible disease, demand attention to it and help fund the day-to-day work needed to help all those affected. We need a very large team of people coming together to generate a more active national campaign against PF."

About The Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF)
CPF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, founded in 2001 to accelerate research efforts leading to a cure for pulmonary fibrosis (PF), while educating, supporting, and advocating for the community of patients, families, and medical professionals fighting this disease. The CPF funds promising research into new approaches to treat and cure pulmonary fibrosis; provides patients and families with comprehensive education materials, resources, and hope; serves as a voice for national advocacy of Pulmonary Fibrosis issues; and works to improve awareness of Pulmonary Fibrosis in the medical community as well as the general public. The CPF’s nonprofit partners include many of the most respected medical centers and healthcare organizations in the U.S. With more than 17,000 members nationwide, the CPF is the largest nonprofit organization in the U.S. dedicated to advocating for those with pulmonary fibrosis. For more information please visit CoalitionForPF.org

Source: Queen Latifah

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