Rose McGowan to talk at the Storyhouse in Chester

Rose McGowan the courageous actor and activist is heading this way - be prepared to be empowered!

Rose McGowan (Image: CLAIRE ROTHSTEIN)

Rose McGowan the glamorous actor turned shaven headed activist and outspoken feminist is coming to Chester this month.

She’s kicking off a tour to promote her compelling memoir Brave which encompasses everything from her childhood in the Children of God cult to her adulthood in what she regards the ‘cult’ of Hollywood.

Rose will be at the Storyhouse on April 26th and prior to the tour she spoke over the phone from a friend’s house in London about her reasons for wanting to expose herself to the ‘anything might happen’ potential of appearing in front of a live audience.

‘On stage it’s going to be readings from my books and also talking to the audience doing a Q&A and telling stories,’ says the actor, who prior to the #MeToo movement was most famous for her role in the Charmed TV series.

Brave by Rose McGowan (Image: Archant)

‘It’s called Storyhouse and I think that it will be an exciting evening actually. It’s something I didn’t get to do enough of in my career so now with my book it has been really in interesting interacting with the audience.’

As an actor who has spoken out against sexual assault and harassment, she will most certainly have a lot to say but the one person she may not talk about is Harvey Weinstein who in her book Brave, she can’t and won’t name, referring to him as the Studio Head and the beast.

(Weinstein, in case you have been living on another planet for the past couple of years is the powerful Hollywood figure who has been accused of sexual misconduct and harassment by several women including Rose and who will go on trial in June).Instead what she wants to do mostly is inspire others.

‘It’s the motivation behind the book and the tour,’ she explains.

‘My goal was always to see, and it’s just a random number but one night I was sitting around and I was wondering if I could be 10 per cent smarter I was wondering if I could inspire other people to press a cultural reset. I was raised to be of service. I was raised to be a volunteer by my family so in a way it’s a continuation of that, just on a broad scale.

‘I think the live audience will get that my message is one of hope and bravery and strength. And that it’s about being human at the end of the day and about being bigger people than we know we can be. And that we can imagine the big life we can. It’s really quite an uplifting talk.’

Rose was a child model who fell into acting and admits she never really wanted to be famous.

She’s lived most of the time as an outsider and was the girlfriend of outsider types such as Marilyn Manson and cult director Roberto Rodrigues.

‘I think I’ve always held myself separately and just the way I was raised was unique,’ she says. ‘I lived a unique kind of life.’

Although she has lived most of her life in the USA she was brought up in a Children of God commune by her writer mother and artist father in Tuscany, Italy and after all the controversy over the Harvey Weinstein scandal she has found Europe a place to cool her heels for a while.

Of course as her profile has increased she gets recognised on the streets.

‘The British people are a lot more reserved (than Americans) she says with a laugh.

‘I’ve had a lot of kindness here and that’s nice. I came here just to kind of heal after the last year which was pretty traumatic and just try to live my best life, you know.’

Recently she was asked to model for Vivienne Westwood at London Fashion Week and loved the experience which she desribes as a kind of ‘performance’.

‘She’s incredible. She’s somebody I really look up to. She’s been through a lot too and she drove a tank up to David Cameron’s house for God’s sake!’ she recollects.

‘She walks the walk and she does it really well. It’s just great to be surrounded by such creative people.’

In the book, Rose also reveals the trauma of how she became a runaway and finally homeless and admits that it was something that stayed with her for a long time.

‘It kept me in a really fear-based place for a long time,’ she reveals.

‘And I finally had to let that go. I knew I would be OK no matter what. That I would be taken care of.

‘I feel very empowered and I want to share that with other people. That’s what the talk and the book is about really. I do get people trying to undermine me all the time and I am a really sensitive person but I just kind of take my licks and stand up again the next day, that’s all you can do.’

Storyhouse Hunter Street, Chester, CH1 2AR. 01244 409113 storyhouse.com

be brave

Interviewed live on-stage by revered journalist and co-founder of The Pool, Sam Baker, Rose McGowan will explore the realities of exposing the truth about the inequality and injustice of the entertainment industry and shining a light on a multi-billion-dollar business built on systemic misogyny.

How can we dismantle the concept of ‘fame’? How do we continue to maintain the strength required to be brave?

Brave with Rose McGowan will be to be a thought-provoking evening of raw, honest and important conversation from the voice of a generation and one that will be remembered for many thereafter

As part of a short tour of only four venues, she will be at the Storyhouse in Chester on April 26th and at the Lowry Salford Quays on May 5th.

To book tickets visit: faneproductions.com/ROSE.