| BIOGRAPHY
Appearing as a cross between Betty Boop's evil sister and a
very curvaceous Hell's Angel, actress Rose McGowan made an undeniably
distinct impression on Hollywood in the late '90s. With her sharp
tongue and brash sensuality, McGowan has been a source of both
titillation and discomfort to an industry that still hasn't quite
figured out what to do with women who are both unapologetically
smart and sexual.
The child of hippies, McGowan was born September 5, 1975, in
Florence, Italy, to a French mother and Irish father. The second
oldest of six children, McGowan was raised on an Italian commune
run by the Children of God cult. Her family relocated to Oregon
when McGowan was ten, and she left the commune at 15. She supported
herself with a variety of odd jobs and even lived on the streets
for awhile before traveling to Los Angeles to attend an arts school.
It was there that she was discovered by director Gregg Araki,
who, as fate would have it, encountered her outside of a gym.
Araki was busy casting his Sundance entry, The Doom Generation,
and gave her the role of Amy Blue, the film's beautiful, spoiled,
and morally ambiguous protagonist. Prior to her role, McGowan
had only appeared as a minor character in 1992's Encino Man, making
her casting in Araki's film all the more fortuitous. The Doom
Generation was released in 1995, to mixed reviews and a fair amount
of controversy, but helped to establish McGowan as, if not Hollywood's
Next Big Thing, then Internet fodder for slavering males everywhere.
The film also gave her a greater chance at steady work and she
followed The Doom Generation with the low-budget thriller Kiss
and Tell (1996). Subsequently, she landed a role in another thriller
possessing a decidedly bigger budget, Wes Craven's Scream (1996).
The film was a surprise hit and McGowan's turn as a frisky student
who has an unfortunate encounter with a garage door further widened
her fan base. After starring in the 1997 TV movie Devil in the
Flesh, McGowan appeared in two back-to-back movies with fellow
rising star Ben Affleck. First came her turn as the girl who tries
to seduce a very excited Jeremy Davies in 1997's Going All the
Way, followed by her role in the ski slope thriller Phantoms (1998).
1999 saw her take the lead in the independent film Jawbreaker,
in which she starred with Rebecca Gayheart. As Alpha Bitch Courtney
Shane, McGowan excelled in a role that was equal parts vamp, tramp,
and camp. The film met with mixed reviews and lackluster box-office
but helped to cement McGowan's position as one of the most watchable
guilty pleasures of the late '90s. |
FILMOGRAPHY
• The Killing Yard (2001)
• Monkeybone (2001)
• Roads to Riches (2001)
• Ready to Rumble (2000)
• Jawbreaker (1999)
• The Last Stop (1999)
• Devil in the Flesh (1998)
• Phantoms (1998)
• Southie (1998)
• Going All the Way (1997)
• Nowhere (1997)
• Scream (1996)
• The Doom Generation (1995)
• Lewis & Clark & George (1995)
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