Rose McGowan accuses filmmaker Alexander Payne of sexual misconduct

Clark Collis
·2 min read

Mike Marsland/WireImage; Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Actress Rose McGowan, a key figure in the #MeToo movement who was one of the first women to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse, has accused Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne of sexual misconduct when she was 15.

McGowan, 46, tweeted Monday morning, "Alexander Payne. You sat me down & played a soft-core porn movie you directed for Showtime under a different name. I still remember your apartment in Silverlake. You are very well-endowed. You left me on a street corner afterward. I was 15."

In a subsequent tweet featuring an old headshot of herself, McGowan wrote, "I just want an acknowledgment and an apology. I do not want to destroy. This was me at 15."

A representative for Payne, 59, whose films include Sideways and Downsizing, did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

McGowan has emerged as a prominent voice in the #MeToo movement and was one of dozens of women who accused Weinstein, 68, of sexual misconduct. After the New York Times reported that Weinstein paid her a $100,000 settlement after an alleged incident in a hotel room during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, McGowan said the disgraced movie mogul had raped her. Weinstein, who denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, was convicted in February on two rape and assault charges involving other women.

In 2018, as reported by The Cut, McGowan told journalist Ronan Farrow during a talk at New York's 92nd Street Y that she had been sexually abused by another prominent film industry figure when she was 15. "He took me home, after he met me, and showed me a soft-porn movie he'd made for Showtime, under a different name, of course," she said. "And then he had sex with me. And then he left me next to Tropical in Silver Lake, standing on a street corner."

According to The Cut, Farrow confirmed that McGowan had previously revealed the man's identity to him off the record, but that she would name him publicly when she was ready.

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