Hollywood

Rose McGowan accuses Oscar winning director Alexander Payne of sexual misconduct when she was 15 tweeting: ‘You sat me down & played a porn movie’

Rose McGowan has called for an ‘acknowledgement and apology’ from director Alexander Payne after claiming he played her a ‘soft-core porn movie’ when she was aged 15.

The actress, 46, took to Twitter on Monday to make allegations that the Oscar-winning director, 59, was ‘very well-endowed’ and had ‘left her on a street corner’ after showing her the pornographic material.

Alexander Payne’s representatives are yet to respond to a request for comment from MailOnline.   

McGowan has becoming a leading activist in the #MeToo movement and was at the forefront of the fight to help bring disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to justice.

She tweeted: ‘Alexander Payne. You sat me down & played a soft-core porn movie you directed for Showtime under a different name.

‘I still remember your apartment in Silverlake. You are very well-endowed. You left me on a street corner afterwards. I was 15.

Allegation: Rose McGowan has called for an 'acknowledgement and apology' from director Alexander Payne after claiming he played her a 'soft-core porn movie' when she was aged 15 (pictured October 2019)
Claim: McGowan and Payne (pictured above in September 2018) are known to have been friends for many years. In 2012, she tweeted 'Yay Alexander Payne!' when he picked up the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants

Rose McGowan, left, has called for an ‘acknowledgement and apology’ from director Alexander Payne, right, after claiming he played her a ‘soft-core porn movie’ when she was  15

The actress, 46, took to Twitter on Monday to make allegations that the Oscar-winning director, 59, was 'very well-endowed' and had 'left her on a street corner' after showing her the pornographic material

The actress, 46, took to Twitter on Monday to make allegations that the Oscar-winning director, 59, was ‘very well-endowed’ and had ‘left her on a street corner’ after showing her the pornographic material

She then posted a black and white headshot of herself as a teenager, adding: ‘I just want an acknowledgement and an apology. I do not want to destroy. This was me at 15.’  

Payne would have been around 28 at the time of the alleged incident in the late 1980s.

McGowan and Payne are known to have been friends for many years. In 2012, she tweeted ‘Yay Alexander Payne!’ when he picked up the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants. 

Payne, a film director, screenwriter, and producer, is also known for his films Sideways (2004), Election (1999) and About Schmidt (2002).    

MailOnline has contacted Alexander Payne’s representatives for comment. 

McGowan then posted a black and white headshot of herself as a teenager, adding: 'I just want an acknowledgement and an apology. I do not want to destroy. This was me at 15.'

McGowan then posted a black and white headshot of herself as a teenager, adding: ‘I just want an acknowledgement and an apology. I do not want to destroy. This was me at 15.’

McGowan was one of the leading activists of the global #MeToo movement and accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s. 

In May she said that she is ‘in a good place now’ that Weinstein is serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault.   

The disgraced movie mogul, 68, was convicted in March in a landmark #MeToo case that ended with six of his accusers sobbing and hugging each other from the front row of the courtroom. 

Speaking at all-female members club, the AllBright’s digital event series for Mental Health Awareness Week, the Charmed star said: ‘I’m in a good place now because nine/ten weeks ago he was put in prison.

‘Although I hear he’s in the hospital because he’s too scared to be in general population. He’s always faking something.’  

Weinstein was hospitalized with chest pains hours after receiving a 23-year sentence. Later in March, he reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 and was put in isolation for 14-days at Wende Correctional Facility in Western New York. 

He is now being held in the prison’s residential mental health unit, where he remains on suicide watch, a prison official said in April.  

Weinstein was convicted of raping an aspiring actress in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006.    

McGowan went on to share that creativity has been her ‘antidote’ to her past trauma and claimed that she had a nervous breakdown ‘during the whole thing’.

The American actress continued: ‘I wrote the book Brave and recorded Planet 9 simultaneously; they go together… 

#MeToo movement: McGowan, 46, who was one of the leading activists of the global movement and accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, has now shared that she is 'in a good place' following his conviction (pictured together in 2007)

#MeToo movement: McGowan, 46, who was one of the leading activists of the global movement and accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, has now shared that she is ‘in a good place’ following his conviction (pictured together in 2007) 

‘I had this incredible workload for three-and-a-half years, and I did that because I knew that after I was done fighting the bad guys and bad women (if you’re ever done), that I would have no Hollywood career. 

‘Planet 9 is the happy reward for going through Brave because Brave is tough at times… it’s a book that gets you brave but you have to go through a lot with me to get there.’

McGowan released her music album, Planet 9, in April where she whispers songs to soothe people and her memoir Brave, which documents Weinstein’s sexual assault, in 2018.    

The star added: ‘I’ll be honest, I think at one point during the whole thing, I think I had now what I know to be a nervous breakdown, and I didn’t know, I don’t know who could of survived it…

‘They drive us to die, and they drive us to commit suicide, and that’s what they were trying to do and my brain at one point just snapped under the pressure.’

Convicted: The disgraced movie mogul, 68, was convicted in March in a landmark #MeToo case that ended with six of his accusers sobbing and hugging each other from the front row of the courtroom (pictured outside court on February 24)

Convicted: The disgraced movie mogul, 68, was convicted in March in a landmark #MeToo case that ended with six of his accusers sobbing and hugging each other from the front row of the courtroom (pictured outside court on February 24) 

McGowan added that she was ‘working toward steadily taking [Weinstein] down for years’ and became used to ‘being hated’ after becoming a polarising figure.

She said: ‘Sometimes I just think I’m a freak. I’ve always been the same… but when I shaved my head, people could hear the words coming out of my mouth. I knew what I was setting up, I was working toward steadily taking [Weinstein] down for years. 

‘And again, that’s why I created Brave and Planet 9 – I had to write my way out of Hollywood which I call a cult because I grew up in one and I would know.’

McGowan claimed that Weinstein ‘paid’ people to trash her and ‘disregard me as a drug addict, a crazy woman, a w***e’.

She continued: ‘The standard playbook that they do for anybody that comes forward about sexual assault, whether they’re known or unknown. But then the sad thing is when people join in; when people believe it.   

‘I was so used to being hated in a way, for so long that I was like – well I might as well give you a reason to hate me. And I might as well help a lot of people while I can. Rose McGowen speaks out about Harvey Weinstein’s upcoming trialLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00PreviousPlaySkipMuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:22FullscreenNeed Text

‘Because I do have a special weird superpower. I don’t know what it is by name, but I can cut through the noise and I do it effectively.’

McGowan concluded her interview by revealing that she feels ‘safer’ during lockdown, she said: ‘I feel safer because people can’t get to me for once.’

The star joined The AllBright Group and Let’s Reset as part of their digital event series for Mental Health Awareness Week.  

McGowan has previously claimed that she forwent having children so she could ‘keep on fighting’ against Weinstein and insisted she won’t be free of the disgraced mogul until one of them is dead. 

In an interview with The Guardian, she told that her battle against the producer has been ‘very calculated’, but insisted it will not be over until ‘he’s dead – or I am’.

‘If I had had a child, I couldn’t have taken Harvey Weinstein down, said Rose, ‘So I had to forego that so I could keep on fighting. I had to basically have no dependants. It’s been very calculated.’

She added: ‘I probably am not going to be free of him until he’s dead or I’m dead’.  

She told that the years prior to his conviction felt like her ‘cells were dissolving’, because she was constantly working at a ‘high anxiety level’.   

McGowan told GMB the guilty verdicts were a ‘huge moment’ and that she hoped it would lead to more predators being convicted. Rose McGowan talks about ‘Me Too’ movement on GQ red carpetLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00PreviousPlaySkipMuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time1:01FullscreenNeed Text

McGowan said: ‘This is a huge victory for all of us who have ever been affected by Harvey Weinstein. This affects so many. It’s a huge moment. I thought he was going to exonerated.’ 

‘I never really had hope you see. I realized the last time I had hope was the moment before I was raped by him and after that it became survival.   

‘I didn’t have hope but not because of the jury, I’m very grateful to that jury for getting further than most jury’s get in rape cases. 

‘I was worried, it’s hard to speak publicly about it without getting sued. But it’s an extraordinary moment and it’s a watershed moment.

‘It’s a never-ending kind of situation. This is an unbelievable achievement to have a woman who was raped by an accuser in court and saying ”you did this to me”. That is a privilege. There’s an astounding number of victims who never get any kind of measure of justice. 

‘So, I found it, we were winning by even having it in court. That’s how little we’ve been taught to expect.’

Speaking out: Speaking at all-female members club, the AllBright's digital event series for Mental Health Awareness Week, the Charmed star said: 'I'm in a good place now because nine/ten weeks ago he was put in prison.' (pictured in October 2019)

Speaking out: Speaking at all-female members club, the AllBright’s digital event series for Mental Health Awareness Week, the Charmed star said: ‘I’m in a good place now because nine/ten weeks ago he was put in prison.’ (pictured in October 2019)

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