Rose McGowan 'optimistic Harvey Weinstein will be brought to justice' over sex assault claims
The actress, who claims she was raped by the movie mogul at a hotel in 1997, tells Sky News she is "still suffering to this day".
Friday 8 March 2019 21:43, UK
Actress Rose McGowan has told Sky News she is "cautiously optimistic" that Harvey Weinstein will be brought to justice over allegations of sexual assault.
The former Charmed star has been one of Weinstein's most vocal accusers after claiming she was raped by the movie mogul during the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
Weinstein, 66, is due to face a New York trial in June after pleading not guilty to five counts of sexual assault relating to two women.
Addressing the criminal case against the film producer, McGowan said: "I feel very rich and powerful people have a different set of rules in the justice system than other people do.
"I am cautiously optimistic, but very cautiously optimistic.
"It is something at least that's he's going to court and there is public scrutiny involved in this, and his crime will be known."
McGowan, 45, said she was "still suffering to this day" and it had been "a hard fight to have her own narrative out there".
She added: "For so long, he paid off people in the media to slander me - for years and years - because I never signed a confidentiality agreement. I presented a danger."
McGowan told Sky News she had decided not to name Weinstein in her memoir Brave, calling him "the monster" instead, because she "didn't want his ugly name in my pretty book".
"He's been the monster on my back for so many years," she said.
:: Video shows Harvey Weinstein behaving inappropriately with businesswoman
The actress, who had previously lived on the streets from the age of 13, said Weinstein's alleged attack had "disastrous consequences" on her career and well-being.
"It changes who you are, it steals who you are and who you're meant to be," she said. "It's deeply unfair."
Weinstein denies all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Addressing sexual abuse in Hollywood, McGowan criticised the #TimesUp movement after actresses wore black dresses to awards shows in a sign of solidarity, saying: "I don't know if there's any major movement that will be solved by dresses."
She also said that while #MeToo had "pushed a great detail reset on the world", she would not describe it as a "movement".
She said: "As far as it being attributed to being a movement, I think that makes it sound like there are women on the street holding pitchforks running after men. That's really not the case.
"I'm pro-men, I'm pro-women, I'm pro-everybody, I'm pro us being better."