Rose McGowan on Noel Clarke: “How many didn’t come forward?”
Rose McGowan has spoken about the “shocking” accusations of abuse and harassment made against Noel Clarke, questioning whether there may have been other victims who have not yet come forward.
Speaking to The Guardian in a new interview published today (July 4), McGowan was asked if she had followed the allegations made against Clarke in April this year by over 20 women. “I did, yes. And they were a bit shocking,” she said. “The thing is, for every one of those women, how many didn’t come forward? And did people know, and just were like, ‘This is how it is’?”
As well as opening up further about being “blacklisted” by Harvey Weinstein – prior to the actress becoming one of the first women to publicly accuse the Hollywood producer of sexual misconduct in 2017 – McGowan provided other examples of toxic behaviours within the film and TV industry.
“When I was acting there were male actors I worked with who, when they had to do a sex scene, they would wear this… they called it a ‘cock sock’. I don’t know how to say that nicely,” she explained. “And they would literally have the young costume design assistant come in and put that on for them. Because they couldn’t do that themselves. And that’s acceptable.
“What job on the planet would that be OK in, other than this weird world? And if you object, you have to be willing to kill your own career for somebody else’s misdeeds. It’s really not OK.”
Earlier this week (July 2), the BBC said that it will not proceed with projects involving Clarke.
The actor, writer and director, who has denied all claims except for one, accepting that he once made inappropriate comments about one woman for which he later apologised, saw his drama Bulletproof cancelled by Sky in May following the allegations.