Actress Rose McGowan, who has become a leading activist against sexual abuse in Hollywood following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, says she was offered $1 million by The Weinstein Company to sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to a New York Times report on Saturday.
The offer was reportedly made to McGowan days before the Times published an expose on Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. An industry-wide protest has since launched, demanding accountability from Hollywood studios for protecting executives and directors who engage in repeated harassment of women. McGowan was not quoted in the original Times story, but came out later about her own abuse and has become one of the leading faces of the anti-abuse movement.
“I had all these people I’m paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art,” McGowan said to the Times on Sunday. She added that she asked for a counter-offer of $6 million, partly to see how much Weinstein was willing to pay for her silence and partly as an act of retaliation against her abuser. She had received a $100,000 settlement from Weinstein 20 years ago, but that did not include a confidentiality clause.
“I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three,” she said. “But I was like — ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.”
A representative for Weinstein has stated, “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
At the Women’s Convention in Detroit on Friday, McGowan spoke publicly against Weinstein for the first time with a fiery speech calling the attendees to rally against systemic abuse.
“I have been silenced for 20 years. I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed. I’ve been maligned. And you know what? I’m just like you,” she told the crowd. “Because what happened to me behind the scenes happens to all of us in this society, and that cannot stand and it will not stand.”
“My sisters, our allies, our brothers — we are no nation, we are no country, we belong to no flag. We are a planet of women and you will hear us roar.”