On Friday, Rose McGowan appeared at the Women’s Convention in Detroit, and gave her first in-person public statement about Harvey Weinstein. She didn’t say his name, which is her right and I don’t blame her. She’s been living under the threat of the nondisclosure agreement for 20 years. McGowan talked about being shamed and harassed – you can see some of her speech here. McGowan also wrote a piece for the NY Times this weekend, and she claims that just before everything came out this month, Weinstein’s people offered her $1 million in new hush money (which she refused).
One of the things that confused me about the history of Quentin Tarantino and what he did and didn’t know about Weinstein was that… QT is really good friends with director Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez dated (and was engaged to) Rose for several years, 2006-09. Rodriguez and QT made Grindhouse with backing from Miramax/Dimension. What did McGowan tell Rodriguez, and what did Rodriguez tell Tarantino, and why did QT and Rodriguez continue working with that company? Well, Rodriguez felt it was time to tell his side of the story, and he did so on Friday, as McGowan (his ex) spoke at the Women’s Convention. He wrote his story and Variety published it – go here to read the full piece.
When Rodriguez first met McGowan: “I met Rose in Cannes on May 19, 2005, at an amfAR after party. “Sin City” had just screened at the Festival the night before. Rose and I were talking, and she told me she was a film noir fan and that she wished she could have been cast in “Sin City.” I asked her “Why didn’t you audition for it? You would have been terrific.” She said that she couldn’t because she had been blacklisted from working on any Weinstein movies. When I asked what she meant by that, and how could she possibly be blacklisted, she told me the horrifying story of what Harvey did to her seven years earlier.
Rodriguez instantly wanted to cast her in Grindhouse: “Incensed at what I heard, I told Rose that she was not blacklisted from MY movies and that Harvey couldn’t tell me who to cast. The reason was that Harvey didn’t work on my movies, I made movies all those years for Dimension and Bob Weinstein. So I explained that if I cast her in my next film, Harvey couldn’t suddenly tell me no, because my first question would be “Oh, really? Why can’t I cast her?” And I was sure he would not want to tell me why. I then revealed to Rose right then and there that I was about to start writing a movie with Quentin Tarantino, a double feature throwback to 70’s exploitation movies, and that if she was interested, I would write her a BAD ASS character and make her one of the leads. I wanted her to have a starring role in a big movie to take her OFF the blacklist, and the best part is that we would have Harvey’s new Weinstein Company pay for the whole damn thing.
That same night, he spoke to Weinstein as McGowan was sitting there: “Just as I finished telling Rose this, I saw Harvey walking around the party! I called Harvey over to our table, and as soon as he got close enough to see that I was sitting with Rose, his face dropped and went ghostly white. I said, “Hey Harvey, this is Rose McGowan. I think she’s amazing and really talented and I’m going to cast her in my next movie.” Harvey then dribbled all over himself in the most over the top performance I’d ever seen as he gushed, “Oh she’s wonderful, oh she’s amazing, oh she’s fantastic, oh she’s so talented… You two should definitely work together.” And then he skittered off. I knew right then that every word Rose told me was true, you could see it all over his face. I looked over at Rose. Her mouth was open, and her eyes were wide. “WOW. I’ve never seen that before,” she said. I then told her that if she wanted a role that I would write it for her and Harvey’s company would have to fund it. Rose agreed, and the deal was done. I found it so commendable that she was putting the incident behind her and moving forward with her career. I wanted to help. We had a plan, and more importantly, we had a mission.Even though they kept quiet about their scheme, Harvey still buried them: “To our horror, Harvey buried our movie anyway, and because we did not want to risk getting sued, we never spoke publicly about the matter. It would have been much easier on both of us if we could have just revealed why we were doing it…. even though “Grindhouse” received great reviews, Rose got terrific notices, and the film is still a fan favorite today… it was heartbreaking to see Harvey simply bury the movie for its release.
He wonders if it was all worth it: “Looking back over the years, I have wondered if I would have made the same choices, knowing the bleak outcome. We all suffered greatly on the film, and the journey ended up costing us all more than we ever bargained for. For me personally, it cost me my marriage of 16 years, my family, a large dose of sanity, and for years I have grappled with the sobering idea that maybe I made a grave error in standing up at all, when no one was even asking me to. I know that’s not the message I’d ever want to send out, but it’s been hard to justify something that now is clear was a lose/lose situation from the get-go, and that in the end failed and simply caused more damage. The reason I’m saying this is because it’s very clear to me now that when someone does what Harvey Weinstein did, the devastation goes far beyond predator and victim.
I get the feeling throughout the piece that Rodriguez meant well and his intentions were good, and that he honestly believed he was Rose’s passionate advocate and supporter. But there were several parts of his story that left me cold. The first night he met McGowan, she told him what Weinstein had done to her and Rodriguez still called Weinstein over. If you believe Rose (and I do), she told a man that Weinstein had raped her eight years prior and that man’s first reaction was to coax her rapist over to the table. It also seemed like Rodriguez was more worried about Rose’s blacklisting than the sexual assault, and that the worst part of all of this was that his film got buried. I mean… again, I think he has good intentions and there’s a lot of stuff in his essay which Comes across as sympathetic to survivors of sexual violence. But there’s a lot of stuff that comes across as very “what’s your main priority here again?”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
His intentions were pure, and he was in a moment so didn’t have time to process and consider the possible ramifications. It was brave and an act of pure love and light that was subsumed by darkness.
It’s easy to understand why he’d have spent so much more time second-guessing himself, but at the time, he had no idea he was poking a hydra with a toothpick.
Is this sarcasm? An act of pure love and light? Are you joking? Rose herself, who is the sole authority on what happened to Rose, openly stated that “My ex sold our movie to my rapist for distribution.” That does not sound to me like she was on board with whatever went on with that movie.
You honestly don’t see that Rodriguez is twisting everything to make himself the hero (and co-victim) of her story? Really?!
Sarcasm – it’s the “hydra with a toothpick” line that’s the tipoff.
Well, he tried. He did more than many others who were not kicked out of business by Weinstein. Clooney and Tarantino and Damon apparently never said anything and they were never buried or blacklisted by Harvey. But this guy did say and DO something and Harvey retaliated and destroyed a lot of his life and likely nearly drove him into insanity (suicide?).
He deserves some respect for that.
That also assumes that he’s telling 100% of the story. It’s not like he’s mentioning that his 16 year marriage was destroyed because HE cheated on his wife with Rose. His wife that was his business partner. The co-producer of the movie.
@Bridget
I took it to mean getting involved in the first place in his attempt to be helpful caused everything that happened afterward. I am glad he didn’t talk about cheating because it would have implicated Rose and as we know, the women take the hit. I think it is better that was vague.
He’s problematic, but I think that part was a good call.
“It also seemed like Rodriguez was more worried about Rose’s blacklisting than the sexual assault, and that the worst part of all of this was that his film got buried. I mean… again, I think he has good intentions and there’s a lot of stuff in his essay which Comes across as sympathetic to survivors of sexual violence. But there’s a lot of stuff that comes across as very ‘what’s your main priority here again?'”
All of this. Business and money are always the main priority. Which is why behavior like Weinstein’s has been allowed to run rampant for so long.
I think he is trying to show how powerful Harvey was in the industry. That speaking out against him could hurt your career male or female. im not saying people should remain quiet if they know or fear a woman has been assaulted (I believe quite the contrary), but I understand why someone may fear speaking out could not only hurt their career, but also their ability to provide for their family or their own employees. Its not so black and white. I do think its very brave of the women speaking out against not only Weinstein but all the other perverts and sexual offenders out there
That’s what I got from his story too — that the problem can become systemic if someone weirds as much power as Weinsten did, and I suppose there’s only so much you can do. I’m a little shocked at how much power one person can wield in Hollywood though.
Of course, to add, I knew none of Rodriguez’s back story when I read this excerpt. I had no idea he had an affair with Rose McGowan that broke up his marriage.
He wants sympathy for actively choosing to make a film with his partner’s rapist? Umm, no.
Yeah, this was not a good “Plan” from the get go.
Yeah, you’re right, but plan, no plan or just steering clear, Harvey was still the winner.
Wow. Even after hearing so many stories, The level of vindictiveness of HW is ..shocking. And, Kaiser brings up a great point that you don’t call over a rapist to the rape victim, but really how could you avoid him in Hollywood? He was everywhere.
“The first night he met McGowan, she told him what Weinstein had done to her and Rodriguez still called Weinstein over.” Well, he really didn’t know Rose from a hole in the wall. He needed to gauge for himself whether she was telling the truth. The fact that he believed her enough to declare that he was casting her in his new movie was validation. It’s horrible that Weinstein buried their movie and Rodriguez felt that his career suffered for it, but now he sees (and can speak) firsthand how the Hollywood machine works when you’re not the person in power.
“Well, he really didn’t know Rose from a hole in the wall. He needed to gauge for himself whether she was telling the truth.”
Wow. Well, let’s hope no one comes to you with their story, lest you call their rapist over to verify it. Time to change your name again.
@ PPP, you said everything!
You guys, like I know what he did to Rose was the worst and I really felt bad for her, but you should remember that I suffered too!! Don’t forget that! I did it and I didn’t even HAVE to and it then an evil spirit entered my body and made me cheat on my wife and other bad stuff that happened to me. ME.
So basically, don’t stand up for people because then you might not get things you want.
Robert Rodriguez – cancelled.
This is it. This is what was going through my head and couldn’t articulate it.
“Because I tried to stand up for her, Harvey made me trip and fall dick-first into Rose’s vag. Oh, the shame!”
One more of these fools to tick off my list.
That last part is so barf worthy. It’s such a shameless self-pity party. Like, yeah, my ex got raped, but the real tragedy is that my film wasn’t distributed right! Plus the family I left for her, and she won’t even fawn over me for defending her!
Ugh, I’m glad that the last (and only) Robert Rodriguez I’ve ever paid money for was Spy Kids.
“hey Harvey come here and meet your victim..o Rose, how’s that for show.” Does this wannabe cowboy even though of how R would react if she see her rapist? Did he think they will have a nice friendly rekindling? And what cost him his marriage was banging Rose while married. He didn’t get as lucky a Balthazar Getty. As for the NDA Rose just discovered there was none when Harvey and his peeps offered her $1M then they knew about the NY investigation. She asked for $6M then retracted when she saw the article.
idk she signed an nda so what was he going to do assault him at a party? blab and get her in legal trouble?
nda = silence
have to hear it from her.
he sounds all sorts of whuck tho
All I got out of that was “I wanted to be a hero, but later, when I found out what the price was, I wish I had just been a sleeze bag like everyone else around me.”
I’d be more interested in what his now ex wife of 16 years thinks about all this.
👊👌
Right? His statement suggests his marriage was ruined by Harvey’s actions but it was killed by Robert cheating on his wife.
Rodriguez’s timeline does NOT correlate with how it went down.
It was more of a fu*****est over his disregard for his wife & 5 children that followed that movie and bad reviews than anything else.😐
Listen I’m just so tired of men. Like so tired of them. I get it he’s “well-intentioned” but like I have all kinds of things running in my head. Like the fact that he called Weinstein over there and try to blame her for the fall of his marriage is just super upsetting.
It’s like I get it both of them made their choices to have an affair but time and place dude.
Why does he think we care about his story. I don’t care about it.
“Why does he think we care about his story. I don’t care about it.”
For somebody who doesn’t care, it certainly seems like you care.
This is the type of gaslighting women talk about. The second you bring up you don’t like men, it’s always “lets gaslight this situation where you are in the wrong, not men”
I wonder if she told him the extent of the assault. In other words, I wonder if she downplayed the fact that Weinstein raped her because it is kind of a big thing to tell someone you essentially had just met. I wouldn’t blame her if she had. Because otherwise, the fact that Rodriguez called him over is horrifying.
I think he thought he was doing the right thing and that he was helping McGowan get off a blacklist. But at the end of the day, he should have had a sense that this could be retraumatizing to her.
Its interesting that Rose counter offered for 6 million and her friends told her to take the money to fund her art. She withdrew that counter offer just after the article in the NYT came out (I think that is what she said). Even her friends right before the article came out were probably encouraging her thinking look what she has been through, nothing will change etc. That’s the power he had.
I suspect her advisers would get a chunk of that settlement. Or maybe I’m just super cynical today.
“For me personally, it cost me my marriage of 16 years, my family..”
Uh bro, didn’t YOU cost yourself your marriage and family?
Did he just blame his wandering dick on Weinstein?
That’s what I read, right?
Detritus
He really seems to be saying that Rose is the one to blame ultimately
But he’s wrapping it in the Harvey mess.
Like if Rose had never told him
If he’s never met Rose
His whole life would be…
What exactly Robert? As IF he’s a victim.
Talk about rewriting history. And what a giant ego this prick has.
In film school art UT – while I was a student he was older, breaking out, but a hero bc he was a UT alum broke and making his own rules.
What a disappointment
yeah it was kind of gross he was positioning himself as a victim in all of that. Considering he contributed to further messing up Rose, and the dissolution of his own marriage.
HW is a disgusting pig, but Robert Rodriguez ruined his own marriage by having an affair with RM. He just went down in my opinion of him. I also get what he was trying to do, but he also seems to have a hero complex.
He spoke out to tell his account and he didn’t have to. + 1
He tried to help her after hearing about her experience and her powerful enemy. +1
He called her alleged (at the time) attacker over to verify her story while she was there. WTELF? – 1
He movie was S–tcanned for having his cake (Weinstein $$$) and eating it (McGowan). + – 0. (What did you expect, you male privileged f—?)
He throws himself a pity party for the fact above. -1
He attributes the loss of a 16 year marriage and his family for making that one choice??? Like that’s all that made that happen? (Oh f—k you…). – 100000000000
I can see y’alls point of view, but I understand why he called sleazbag over. Hollywood is a tough place. People in that biz are tough and resilient. He wasn’t thinking about whether it would hurt her. I don’t think it did. I think it very well could have gratified her at the time. So I don’t get the cancelling and shaming of Rodriguez. Stories have come out how you wouldn’t and couldn’t have any kind of career in any field in Hollywood if you crossed Weinstein or any other powers that be (were). He came across well to me. He tried to “show” Weinstein and Weinstein showed him instead. He wasn’t arrogant or hero-y. He was naive.
I’m waiting less and less patiently to see what happens to Spacey (beginning), Singer and Schneider and Geffen. I think Spacey and Schneider will be fall guys and Singer and Geffen will buy or strongarm their way out of it.
Yeah. I can see why people are jumping on the last paragraph, but I don’t think he’s blaming his infidelity on Weinstein or Rose. He’s just saying that the initial choice to do that, led to bunch of dumb decisions on his part. Sort of where it all started to go off the rails.
I think he wanted to be an ally until he truly realized the cost. This is yet another example of privilege-you can choose if you are affected. Women, POC, LGBTQ community-we don’t get to take off our “ally” uniform and just choose not be affected.
This seems to counter Rose’s twitter claim that “my ex sold our movie to my rapist”. According to this, Rose knew all along Weinstein was behind the movie.
That was my takeaway from all of this too. The movie was connected to the Weinsteins before Rose was? The timeline is all weird on this. If that was a problem for her, I don’t understand why she would have gotten involved with the project at all if his account is true. Their relationship and breakup seem like they must have been a mess.
If memory serves me correct, that film had a wide release. I saw it opening weekend and I didn’t live in a big city that allowed me the opportunity to see films without wide releases. So I’m not quite believing Rodriguez for saying the movie was “buried” by Weinstein. I thought the movie sucked. I only went to see it because my boyfriend at the time wanted to go. Sounds like Rodriguez is reinventing history to explain poor ticket sales for his sucky movie.
I also thought he and McGowan were selfish and arrogant with their very public, shameless affair without any consideration for the pregnant wife and kids he left behind. I always felt he deserved more blame than Rose because he was the married one with kids.
Not buying any of his claims in this article. The only person Rodriguez was ever trying to help or protect was himself.
It did get a wide release, when it was the Grindhouse double feature. It has since been separated into two movies, Deathproof and Planet Terror. But yeah, I’m not sure I would say that movie was buried. It was however SUPER niche, and Tarantino at his most indulgent (well, that may be a tie with Hateful Eight). It wasn’t a huge success because of that. Hell, Sin City was a success because it was basically a copy of George Miller’s comic book.
His trying to garner some kind of sympathy for choosing to have an affair is tacky, and inviting Weinstein over with his victim present was thoughtless. As for the rest of it… I think he mostly had good intentions. Maybe moving forward, people in Hollywood will be slightly more hesitant in refusing to work with actresses just because there’s some rumor about them being ‘difficult.’
It feels like Harvey Weinstein made too many powerful men’s dicks stopping getting hard aka power and money so now they care. I am beyond pissed. This still is not about us and the victims we become.
Another douche another day. He is painting himself as the hero who was the only one who stood up and suffered for protecting/fighting for rose! Oh poor ME!! My art did not make money and my family was destroyed by it and nothing to do with me cheating on my wife because I started banging the woman I was saving!!! You guys I was only trying to be the good guy and look what happened to me!!! Go F yourself Rodriguez
+1,000,000!
His story makes perfect sense to me. Calling Harvey Weinstein to the table to make him uncomfortable is exactly something Rose McGowan would have liked to do, considering her campaign against him all these years. A little revenge, since she’d signed that NDA and all that. Also, the fact that Weinstein buried Grindhouse is relevant because it shows that he indeed was blacklisting and blocking people’s careers.
Aside from that, I can’t really support Rose McGowan and her so called fight against sexual abuse. I feel for her as a victim, but the fact she publicly defended and praised a convicted pedophile and child pornographer and willingly worked for him fully aware of that (even though she said ‘she didn’t know the whole story’, which is in court records), made me lose a lot of respect for her. She used the same excuse people have to explain their working with Woody Allen, with the only difference that Victor Salva was convicted for his crime and Woody’s case never went to justice.
@Mina, count me in the club of “Rose McGowan” isn’t a hero. She’s only a fighter when she has been affected personally, screw the underage survivors of Victor Salva. Maybe Rose’s career got blacklisted cuz she’s a shit actress with a reputation for being unpleasant perhaps (or was that Shannon Doherty? They both look the same).
You are mixing two separate issues and invalidating a victim because they aren’t perfect. What does her experience have to do with the other? You have no idea why she said that. Rape victims go through a lot of mental anguish, and it could be she was towing the studio line. She was already having trouble getting work and could not afford to burn more bridges. We all do things we regret, but we should not be prosecuted for life without a chance to explain.
@Trumphater
You don’t have to get personal and mean about Rose. She’s a rape victim and doesn’t deserve to be attacked on a personal level because you disliked her response in an interview. Disagreement is one thing but going low is quite another.
People tear apart celebs all the time based on what is said in interviews. That’s what is happening in this very thread. Rose is a victim and that is sad, but she is also incredibly hostile to everyone for the very thing she herself did. She shows little sympathy for actors and actresses just trying to work.
Now she’s got a warrant for failing to appear in court for a drug charge. That’s a big conspiracy of course, certainly not what happens when you don’t go to court dates for a felony.
I think he’s full of it. First, Rose McGowan has been dragging a toe over the edge of any NDA she signed for years -if Weinstein were even, slightly, concerned about her at all, she’d have been shut down ages ago. I don’t see him having a second thought about seeing her, much less breaking into a sweat. Also, if he didn’t want her in the picture, she wouldn’t have been. Second, her tweet (which suggests she had a fairly high level of involvement in its development) indicates he took it to HW despite her, not that he brought her in to get at HW-although, w/Tranintino attached, it would seem HW would be a given.
Third, the idea that the film was “buried” is nonsense. It was pretty heavily advertised, I remember the ads & trailers, & it opened nationwide.
Team Rose
I have such a huge problem with how Rodriguez has framed this story. Here he is, the white knight helping poor Rose? Nope. His way of getting back at Weinstein, who happened to be his friend and co-creator of Planet Terror Tarantino, was through his own movie? Planet Terror WASN’T buried, though. It was an old school double feature that no one asked for. It was a bad movie, and Rodriguez trashed his own reputation when he hooked up with Rose and destroyed his own marriage. I cannot even find words for how much this pisses me off that he’s trying to co-opt Rose’s story.
“The devastation goes far beyond predator and victim”. Oh poor Robert Rodriguez. I hope he is able to recover from Weinstein’s abuse. WTH?? How is this guy trying to turn Rose’s story to make him some sort of savior & then victim of Weinstein himself? HELL NO!
Maybe it is what men like Rondriguez can do in this situation, try to empower women by giving them roles and writing parts for them. Especially when they are dependant on the powers in the system. But it came out all wrong. He made it all about himself. He was a saviour and then he suffered for being a saviour.
As I posted on another site:
Rodriguez’s self-congratulatory fable falls apart once you know that (a) he blew up his family and wound up in a sexual relationship with Rose McGowan while filming that “stick it to Weinstein” movie role he’s talking about here; and (b) it is clear that he KNEW that Rose was facing headwinds in the biz after what happened with Weinstein, and despite knowing how badly she needed the work, he still (STILL!!!) could not stop himself from getting involved with her in a sexual relationship (with asymmetric personal/professional power issues) and WHILE the movie was filming.
Great job, dude.. You go. Way to help a sista out. :/
A part of me wonders if, after what she went through (what Rodriguez KNEW she went through)… well, if it was even possible for this to be a TRULY a consensual situation for her?
I know she called him boyfriend. I know they got engaged. But even if she felt it was consensual at the time, there is that power disparity. She’s working on HIS movie. And he gets in a sexual relationship with her. There is still the incongruity of power and position, and that means a built in level of structural coercion.
I gotta ask: Why can’t Hollywood live by the rules the rest of us have to live by at work?
Story time: When I started my job (right around the time Rodriguez was filming AND dating Rose McGowan), I had a little electricity with one of my direct supervisors. He was hot, attractive, smart… and my BOSS. No relationship with him would be on even terms, the structure of our jobs prevented it. The HR department would never have permitted it. Its not the kind of job where one of us transfers to a different department/branch. He knew it, and I knew it.
And honestly, there was a time when I first started this job where I would have hooked up with him despite the rules. And if this man pursued me, I think it would have been me that left the company so the relationship could take place.
I think he must have known it, but he’s been NOTHING but professional. And you know what? By being PROFESSIONAL all these years, we have wound up being good friends.
Do I wonder sometimes what it would have been like to be lovers? Sure.
But it turns out that when he retires next year, I’m going to take over his position. And you have no IDEA the move this is for me, and for women, in this company. You know what he did by not pursuing me romantically even though I was no doubt sending him signals? He kept me from leaving the job, or making a laughing stock of myself here. He did not use his power in that way. He did nothing that would have limited my ability to rise on my merits.
Its ASTONISHING that so many big-wigs in Hollywood can’t be as professional as my boss, as my friend, as my MENTOR has been.
It happens in other places where the power disparity prevents relationships. If a doctor and her patient start “feeling” things, the doctor has to wait a specific period of time defined by LAW before dating the patient.
If I were a studio, this would be the rule: Directors, Producers, Etc. (anyone supervisory, including lead actors/actresses vs extras or other JV talent), forfeit their salary on a project if they wind up in a sexual relationship with subordinates during production or within a period of a year after the film OPENS. All relationships between anyone in the studio system (director, producer, casting, whatever) and any actor/actress that occurred or started before production on a film must be disclosed in writing, and BOTH parties forfeit salary if there is an undisclosed prior hookup.
Destroy the casting couch by making it completely unworkable.
@ Jenna. Congratulations! I am so glad you had such a positive, smart mentor. Great story. You make many great points. I love the idea about forfeiting salaries within specific timeframes if you become ‘involved’ with someone from movie, etc. Again, congratulations!
I don’t find his intentions good. He used Rose to get into a pissing contest with Harvey. Point blank.