Entertainment

Rose McGowan: I’d rather Harvey Weinstein just fell off the planet

The actress and activist said Hollywood would have to be burnt down and rebuilt for real change to occur.
The actress and activist said Hollywood would have to be burnt down and rebuilt for real change to occur. The actress and activist said Hollywood would have to be burnt down and rebuilt for real change to occur.

Rose McGowan has said she doubts Harvey Weinstein will face “justice” and would prefer it if he simply “fell off the planet”.

The actress and activist said she hoped the world was “just and right” and the media mogul would be found guilty of charges of sexual assault.

Weinstein was banished from Hollywood alongside a cohort of high-profile men following the emergence of the #MeToo movement in 2017.

His trial is tentatively scheduled for June in New York City and Weinstein denies all charges.

McGowan told Harper’s Bazaar UK: “I would just rather he fell off the planet.

“I don’t often hold out a lot of hope for justice, but I still have that little girl flame inside that’s like please, please, please world, do what’s just and right.

“But my rational self says I don’t know.”

Speaking on International Women’s Day, McGowan expressed scepticism at whether Hollywood was capable of the necessary dramatic change.

“I don’t know what Hollywood needs to do to change,” she said.

“Short of burning it down and starting all over, I’m not really sure what it can do. But I hope it does something because otherwise it’ll be hopelessly out of date.”

GQ Men of the Year Awards 2018 – London
GQ Men of the Year Awards 2018 – London Rose McGowan receives the GQ Inspiration Award (Ian West/PA)

McGowan, 45, was one of the first women to speak out against Weinstein and has since published a memoir entitled Brave detailing, among other things, her alleged sexual assault by him.

She said the rise of #MeToo was like the birth of Christ, heralding a new era of awareness.

She said: “I have a hard time (separating the art from the artist), but I also struggle with it.

“Rosemary’s Baby will come on, and I’ll be like ‘I love this Polanski film’, then I’ll be like ‘I hate that it’s a Polanski film’.

“It’s a conundrum, but for me it’s almost like BC and AD, before Christ, after death. If we’re in a different world now, which we are, and we see things differently, we can’t unsee them.

“People can be very flawed, but there’s a difference between serial rapists and power-abusing bullying men, because they’ve been allowed to be.

“There’s a difference. None are OK, one can be cured and the other can’t. We need to look at what we can do to cure that.”