[UPDATED] Rose McGowan Speaking Up About the “Bullshit in Hollywood” Got Her Fired by Her Acting Agent

Pardon my “don’t give a crap,” but fuck ’em.

Rose McGowan hasn’t been shy about expressing her distaste for how things are run in Hollywood. Recently she gave a speech to the Sisterhood of Traveling Producers in which she gave seven tips to fight sexism in the industry. One of them included the words, “Stand up and stop perpetuating the cycle,” and that’s exactly what McGowan did herself earlier this week when she not-so-subtly tweeted a casting note from an Adam Sandler script which asked for actors to show off cleavage, “push up bras encouraged.”

And what happened? As she took to Twitter again yesterday to tell the world and make sure everyone knows how things are in Hollywood, “I just got fired by my wussy acting agent because I spoke up about the bullshit in Hollywood.”

Pretty much everyone was in agreement she was better off, but she also got some really nice messages thanking her for speaking up.

In the same vein, McGowan also had some great words to say in a recent interview on her directorial debut, Dawn, with i-D:

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 realisd [sic] 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.

And later, on some people working in Hollywood:

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.”

You heard her. She’s got a list. And plenty of others are making them too; you can be sure of that.

[UPDATE] Variety writes:

Rose McGowan’s agent Sheila Wenzel has left Innovative Artist after the actress tweeted that she had been fired by her agent over comments she made regarding a role she auditioned for in an Adam Sandler movie.

Wenzel, whose other clients include Britt Robertson and Amanda Seyfried, said she couldn’t comment on the situation.

Also, Jessica Chastain got in on this.

[UPDATE #2] McGowan has since tweeted a correction on Variety’s story:

Variety also updated their post to now say:

One source tells Variety that Wenzel actually left the agency earlier this week and that her exit had nothing to do with McGowan. The source wasn’t a part of the meetings, but said they believe that once Wenzel left, the wheels were already in motion to drop McGowan in light of her comments about the audition.

“[Sandler and his team] were not aware the casting director sent this note out,” a source close to Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, said. “They felt it was completely inappropriate and have made sure that it has not been sent out again.”

—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—

Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

twitter facebook