Casting Rose McGowan in 'Grindhouse' Was a 'F**k-You' to Harvey Weinstein, Robert Rodriguez Says
Movie

The 44-year-old actress' ex-boyfriend reveals he cast her in his 2007 movie to spite Harvey Weinstein because the filmmaker knew the disgraced producer allegedly sexually assaulted her.

AceShowbiz - Rose McGowan's ex-boyfriend Robert Rodriguez revealed he cast her in "Grindhouse" to get back at Harvey Weinstein. In a lengthy statement to Variety on Friday, October 27, Robert said that he and the actress worked together on the 2007 cult flick to spite Harvey because the filmmaker knew the disgraced producer allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Robert, who dated Rose from 2006 to 2009, said he knew about the alleged incident from the 1997 Sundance Film Festival that the 44-year-old actress made public earlier this month. "As one of the first victims to come forward with stories of sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein, Rose McGowan is a very brave woman who I applaud for speaking out about Weinstein's repulsive behavior," Robert began.

He went on to say that he knew about the assault long before Rose discussed it publicly. After meeting her at a party at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Robert told her she should have tried out for "Sin City", at which point she said she had been blacklisted from appearing in Weinstein productions. However, Robert declined to say anything about it because "I never wanted to do anything that jeopardized a legal settlement she entered into with Harvey Weinstein. Now that she's able to tell her story, I want to provide an account of what I knew, when I knew it, and what I did about it."

The 49-year-old filmmaker revealed he intentionally cast her in a "bad ass" role as a way to spite the movie mogul. After hearing Rose's account of the assault and resulting settlement back then, Robert told her he'd write her a part in his next movie and call Harvey's bluff if he said he couldn't cast her. "Casting Rose in a leading role in my next movie felt like the right move to make at the time--to literally make him pay," he wrote.

But "Grindhouse", which Robert co-directed with Quentin Tarantino, disappeared from theaters so quickly, and Robert alleged that the reason was because Harvey deliberately buried the movie in retaliation. "We knew that strategically we couldn't rub it in his face why we were REALLY doing this movie, because then he'd just bury the movie... to our horror, Harvey buried our movie anyway," he said.

Robert went on to express his support for a proposed New York law that would nullify nondisclosure agreements in cases of harassment and assault, saying that "we must ensure that justice is served and demand cultural change in our country so that this never happens again."

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