Cliffs: Rose McGowan frequents gay country line-dancing clubs
Comments: Gay country line-dance clubs?????
ROSE MCGOWAN
Growing up in gay bars and being an all around badass.
MATT BELL | 4.1.2007
In 1996, she was maimed by a garage door. In 1998, she killed her best friend with a Jawbreaker and spun a web of fantastical lies to cover it up?all the while showing up to the MTV Music Awards with a completely backless dress. For most of this decade, she found herself in a coven of melodramatic modern-day witches. And in 2007, she?s got a machine gun for a leg and whoops some ass at the Maya ruins. With so much quirky fabulosity surrounding this beautiful woman, is it any wonder that there?s something about Rose McGowan?
Rose, we first fell in love with you when you wore that backless dress to the MTV Music Awards. You pretty much invented the scandalous award show dress?you even beat L?il Kim!
Well, no, I did not invent the scandalous dress?that was Carol Lombard in the ?30s. She was an inveterate prankster. She had a premiere at the Chinese Theater in L.A., and she was very late. All of a sudden, an ambulance roars down the red carpet, knocking people out of the way and they pull her out on a stretcher with just tape covering her bits and pieces. I had just read her biography and was inspired. I had a 103° fever, and I was like, "That [dress] is fantastic!" I didn?t understand the concept of electronic media. I thought, "Well, it?ll be funny for the MTV Awards?and then it?ll go away." Oh, no. The Internet lives on forever.
It sure does. So, let?s talk for a minute about you and Shannen Doherty. You both appeared in similar movies (Shannen in Heathers, you in Jawbreaker), and then you filled in her spot on the TV show, Charmed. Any competition there?
I like Shannen. I did a one-day cameo a long time ago, and I was seated on a bus bench between Shannen Doherty and Traci Lords. We caused a car accident, which was fantastic?I?d be sad if anything less happened. We were being psycho valley girls in these nutty outfits, of course, and crazy hair and makeup, and caused a big traffic accident. But, I had a cool time with her. She?s a cool chick.
No wonder the gays love you. Do you have a gay?
A gay? I have many. I had a karaoke party the other night, and I looked around and the boys outnumbered the girls by like 10 to 2, easily. I was a runaway kid, and I went to the only places that would be open all night and accept my really bad fake ID?gay bars. These trannies took me under their wings, and that?s how I learned to do makeup. And they would tell me how to do their makeup, so I could do it; I could paint. There?s something different in them, as well?it?s kind of like kindred spirits. As long as they?re not totally bitchy to me in this article?
Are you calling me a trannie?
Haha, no, no, no! The other night, I went with some gals from the set to a gay country line-dancing club, called the Rainbow Cattle Company, in Austin. It was fantastic. It was segregated?all the girls were on one side and all the boys on the other. There were definitely a couple of Brokeback guys there. You could tell they were coming down from the ranch on the weekend, and they were able to live as themselves?and that just kind of made me sad.
I knew you?d be down with the gays. And curiously, the image of you from Grindhouse with the machine-gun leg is like the sexiest thing I?ve ever seen.
Well, she looks super-tough and hard, but she only comes into that towards the end. She?s kind of a complete loser, and I relate to that, in some ways. I do an opening dance sequence that will rival any Bond girl?s.
Do girls look up to you?
A stripper told me I was her hero, and that?s all you can hope for in this life. I?ve achieved something.
Juliette Lewis, Uma Thurman and, now, you?Quentin Tarantino, who directs Death Proof, the first part of The Grindhouse double feature, has a great eye for fierce bitches. How was it working with him?
He takes his time, and he gets what he wants. A lot of times, I don?t quite see what he?s doing. But, basically, you have to have complete trust in him. And with his track record, you?re usually not going to go wrong.
Why haven?t you starred in a big film since Jawbreaker?
I was on Charmed?it?s the longest-running female show in history! We overtook Laverne & Shirley at one point. I thought it would be hilarious to be on a Spelling show. When I first came to the States, I thought Joan Collins in Dynasty was just maybe the best thing ever. I still do.
Are we going to be seeing a lot more of you now that you?re freed from that show?
I?m back and kicking ass.