As part of a busy press day schedule (but nowhere close to her personal record, which would be the 96 five-minute one-on-one interviews she did for “Grindhouse” in a single day, after roundtable interviews), ShockYa recently had a chance to chat one-on-one with a dazzlingly made-up Rose McGowan, about portraying strong women, the appeal of a “proper man,” upcoming projects, a personality that hasn’t changed much since childhood, and why her crazily wardrobed “Conan” character is, in her words, “much cooler” than Freddy Krueger. The conversation is excerpted below:
ShockYa: So maybe you can illuminate something that came to my attention earlier in roundtable interviews — that apparently there’s a junket game some actors play where they pick a word, a ridiculous word like quesadilla, and then compete to see how many times they can work it into interviews.
Rose McGowan: See, with junket stuff rarely do you see all the stuff that’s written, so I don’t know how the game would work, unless someone is scavenging the Internet for all these stories, which I’m far too lazy to do.
ShockYa: Yeah, the scoring seems fairly subjective. But so you’re not sitting at home Googling yourself, hitting refresh?
RM: (laughs) No, Googling is not your friend. It’s not anyone’s friend.
ShockYa: Your “Conan” character, Marique, is outrageously costumed, sort of a cross between the Red Queen from “Alice in Wonderland” and Freddy Krueger. She was also changed from a young man, in the original script, to a woman. Did you have any part in discussing those costuming changes, then?
RM: She was originally Farique, with a F. All they had to do was change the letter. They had amazing artists working on this on every level — like amazing wardrobe and hair and prosthetics (people), quite a few of which have either already won Oscars or been nominated. Every costume was built literally on me, standing there. It was very different than going and being fitted for a dress you’re going to wear in a certain scene. On set they would show up with a little toolbox and screwdrivers and pliers; my outfits were literally feats of engineering.
ShockYa: How long did make-up take, and how cumbersome was it?
RM: Six hours. I would go in at two in the morning, and then six hours for the prosthetics, and we’d do a full 12- or 14-hour day of filming, and then about an hour for removal. I didn’t sleep much. But it looked cool and was totally worth it.
ShockYa: It was very striking. I was interested in particular in the long fingernails —
RM: It’s funny, because someone else said Freddy Krueger to me yesterday, and I have never seen the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. I don’t watch horror movies, and if you hooked me up to a lie detector, I had no idea Freddy Krueger had fingernail things. I thought he just had a messed-up, melty face, and did something to people in their dreams. I have terrible dreams if I watch horror movies. Did he have them on one hand only?
ShockYa: It’s an evocative image, the idea of these super-long fingernails. Freddy had a glove, though.
RM: Oh, see, mine are just part of my hand, which is much cooler.
ShockYa: You also have a rather warped, unnerving seduction scene with your father (Stephen Lang). In your mind, is Marique so consumed by trying to receive love from her father and pry him away from this obsession with his dead wife?
RM: Completely. I think she just wants to replace her in every way. I think her brain has been a bit twisted through the years, and she’s probably really sick of hearing about her damn. She’s like, “All right, all ready, enough!” I love that there’s some pathos and definitely twisted subtext going on in the film. In a big summer movie that’s not really what you would expect to see going on.
ShockYa: What scene was most difficult?
RM: The scene that was most difficult was me going up the staircase! That was it. I had to walk up a staircase, and that particular outfit was so non-stretchy in every way that my knees were basically held straight and tight. So that was hard, and then I had to bend down to another character. So I was like, “Oh, dear.” Even though I couldn’t really move when the camera was off, for some reason whenever they say “rolling” I can just make stuff work. And then when we finish the shot, I’m back to needing two people to help me around. The producers were finally like, “OK, we have to work something out. This is absurd.” And so for lunch breaks I would just kind of lean up against the couch in my trailer, just praying that we would get to go back to work soon because I couldn’t sit.
ShockYa: Oh, the glamour of filmmaking. What do you think it is about the character of Conan that has endured for so long?
RM: I think that he’s a proper man, in the sense that he’s incredibly masculine, obviously, and there’s not a ton of that in real life. I think men, and women, very much like the idea of somebody who’s a raw animal male versus having to have your feminine side and what not. …I think there’s something really appealing and rough about that, and I like that as a hero, if you will, he doesn’t have any special powers. He can’t fly, no spiderwebs, no funny rings, he’s not some sort of nerd wrestling with his inner demons. He’s just a barbarian. He takes what he wants and leaves the rest. And I think that’s kind of great.
ShockYa: I had a friend, someone who had seen no marketing on the film but heard about the casting and said, “Oh, Rose McGowan must be playing the bad girl, or the villainess.” And I’m sure you’re sent a lot of material where they’re looking to cast to preconception, or expectation. How much of that is something you have to push back against, if any?
RM: Well, I played a good witch for five years (on “Charmed”), and I did a movie “Planet Terror” where I saved the world too. I kind of just play strong women, and I think often people tend to confuse that with evil. This character is certainly evil, but she’s got layers and levels of some schism and personality, it’s not just evil for the sake of being evil. I would far rather be me in this than play the character who’s like, “Oh Conan, save me!” No, come on Conan, bring it! Let’s fight, let’s play, let’s tussle.
ShockYa: To that end, is “Barbarella” is something that is definitely over?
RM: Well, we had $80 million for that, and it was about to shoot in Germany, but Robert (Rodriguez) ultimately did not want to shoot in Germany, and at the same time something in my personal life, in my family, happened, and so I just kind of pulled out of that. But, you know, whatev(er). Who knows, a ladder could have fallen on my head on set and killed me. Some things are not meant to be, and that’s fine. I just finished doing something that your friend will appreciate then. I played a church mouse in a television movie for Jerry Abrams, the father of J.J. Abrams. The script is amazing, and it was a straight offer. I was so shocked that they thought of me. It was so good. It was this little invisible church lady from the deep south who is an invisible shell of a woman. It’s a true story, and it was pretty fantastic doing something that’s a 180-degree turn. That’s one of the cool things about being an actor.
ShockYa: I didn’t know this, but you grew up in Italy and didn’t speak English as a child, is that right?
RM: I understood English, but refused to speak it.
ShockYa: Hmmm, a strong-willed child?
RM: (laughs) Very.
ShockYa: I’m astonished.
RM: From the time I was three years old, I was like, “No, no, no.” My mother said that by the time I was the age of five she was like whatever, and said I could eat whatever I want. I would only green things for one year, and then only white. I was very color-based, for whatever reason. So she gave up. My aunts came over from America and met me when I was three years old, and one said she never met anybody in her life who has changed personality less than me. (laughs) She brought me a Mickey Mouse doll, or stuffed animal, which over there is called Topolino. And she said my face turned red and I started shaking with anger, and said, “Topolino is for babies! I’m not a baby.” And so apparently I was so insulted that she thought I was a child and would want a stuffed animal that I didn’t speak to her all day.
ShockYa: Wow. Where do you think that comes from?
RM: I think I was just very old at a very young age. I feel like I’ve been around for a looong time — not even in this life, but in whatever past lives I might have had.
ShockYa: “Conan” shot in Sofia, Bulgaria. I’ve heard from some filmmakers that crewing a movie in Eastern Europe is problematic. Had you filmed there before?
RM: Only for three weeks. This was a lot longer. People there really have their stuff together. The Bulgarians want to earn a living, and Nu Image has their own huge studio (Nu Boyana) over there, so those experiences didn’t happen with this. I would imagine if you’re just going over straight from America and trying to figure it out with people that you’re hiring off construction jobs to build sets it might not work as well.
ShockYa: You’ve finished “Rosewood Lane” with Victor Salva, is that right?
RM: Yeah, it looks good. I just did some ADR and looping for it the other day, so I saw some pieces of it and it looks cool. My character’s father dies, so she returns to her hometown and takes over his house. And she’s a late night radio therapist who starts being terrorized by one of her listeners. I went from “Conan” to that, and it was interesting going from somebody who terrorizes to being terrorized.
Written by: Brent Simon
