Actress-turned-director Rose McGowan is now actress-turned-director-turned-POPSTAR Rose McGowan– who knew? Her new (slightly NSFW) video – directed by the brilliant Jonas Åkerlund and styled by the equally brilliant fashion maverick B. Åkerlund – features a variety of looks that range from alien Nostferatu to Squeaky Blond realness to a GORGEOUS bejeweled red skull that I would so totally rock the shit out of. Oh, and the music is pretty incredible too!
From Nowness:
Having called out the film industry for sexism and left her acting career behind, The Doom Generation star 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
“Not only did I not fit in, I didn’t want to fit in”
Styled by Swedish fashion icon 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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