Nowness | Interview Rose McGowan

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 Generationstar 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.

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.”

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