Rose McGowan Says Robert Rodriguez Exploited and Betrayed Her While Making 'Planet Terror'

In preparing for the release of her tell-all book "Brave," McGowan told Vanity Fair in a lengthy interview that Rodriguez used the information about her alleged 1997 rape by Harvey Weinstein against her while shooting his half of 2007 pulp horror movie "Grindhouse," a double feature Quentin Tarantino also directed a film for.

According to the article, "he proceeded to use the knowledge against her as a tool for mind games, starting with a scene in which Tarantino, playing a character in his movie, attacks McGowan's character."

The article further states, "In what McGowan interpreted as the ultimate act of cruelty, Rodriguez 'sold our film to my monster.'"

Rodriguez, who was dating McGowan during the production, presented a more empowering and supportive narrative of the making of the '70s exploitation pastiche last October through Variety. The filmmaker said he told McGowan after she revealed the alleged assault that "if she wanted a role that I would write it for her and Harvey's company would have to fund it. Rose agreed, and the deal was done."

Weinstein had a first-look deal for any of Rodriguez' projects, so the director said he cast McGowan in a lead role as a way to "make him pay."

He went on to write, "It felt really good at the time to realize we could use our art form to help Rose right a serious wrong in both how he victimized her years earlier, but also what Harvey was doing to a wonderful actress by blacklisting her and keeping her from working with filmmakers that would have wanted to work with her."

Rodriguez has not yet responded to TooFab's request for comment on McGowan's version of events.

Ultimately, the actress said she considers herself part of a "social re-engineering project" to help reform our thinking. "Even with Rodriguez, as brutal as it was, it was all gathering data," she told Vanity Fair. "Unfortunately, I am the data. It was a sacrifice. But I knew from a very early age that this messaging system was very, very wrong and needed to be brought down."

That process appears to have already begun with Weinstein, accused by more than 100 women now, disgraced and deposed from his perch atop the Weinstein Company, while scores of other powerful men from across various industries are losing their jobs due to accusations of sexual misconduct and assault.