Once a prominent figure in Hollywood’s elite circles, Rose McGowan was a staple of the entertainment industry.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, McGowan was a leading actress in high-profile films such as “Scream” and “Jawbreaker,” and she captivated television audiences on the popular WB series “Charmed.”

At the height of her career, she seemed destined to remain a constant presence among Hollywood’s top personalities.

However, her public persona underwent a dramatic shift when she began to address the systemic abuse within the film industry.

In 2017, McGowan emerged as one of the first actresses to accuse the powerful producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, bringing significant attention to the issue.

The disgraced media mogul was later convicted of a total of four felony sex crimes across two separate cases in New York and California.

Rose’s decision to speak out sent shockwaves through the industry – and according to the actress, marked the beginning of her exile. 

‘I kind of realised Hollywood acts as a mafia, except I realised one day that they never asked me to join,’ she previously told The Fall. 

‘They just assumed I’d keep their secrets. Nobody goes against them for fear of reprisal. Well, I’m not afraid.’ 

Roles dried up, invitations stopped coming, and Hollywood quietly shut its doors. 

Branded ‘difficult’ and effectively blacklisted, Rose decided to pack her bags and leave for a new life in Mexico.

Speaking on her decision to leave ‘toxic’ Hollywood, Rose recently revealed that she felt she was being used to create ‘chaos in the media.

Speaking on a new episode of Paul C. Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, she said: ‘Once I realised that it was really I was being used to kind of cause chaos between men and women on a media level. 

‘Like use me as the focal point of people’s dislike for societal change that wasn’t my thing, and I always said that from the beginning, that was something by definition that happened to me.

‘So what I did was bounce. I just thought my dad lived for many, many years, over 30 years, on the west coast of Mexico.

‘So I’ve been going there since, you know, I was like 17. 

‘I went to the jungle. I went to the jungle ocean, and I kind of thought, then Covid hit, and I was just completely at that point, I wanted a different reality.

‘I didn’t want anything to do with Rose McGowan. 

‘For one year, 2020 was actually, I know it was really hard and horrible for a lot of people, but that was actually the best year of my life.

‘Because I had love, I had friends there, I had my little dog, I was on a beach, and nobody could travel there for quite a while.

‘I was actually safe.’

Last year, Rose revealed that she hung out in the jungle, ‘talked to trees’ and recalibrated after an intense few years.

‘Slowly, I started to remember that I love being creative, and it allowed me to remember who I was, just in a different way,’ she told the Hollywood Reporter.

Rose also dished on how she’s faring in Yucatán while chatting on a panel with former co-star Holly Marie Combs.

‘It is an incredible country. It is so wildly geographically diverse, culturally diverse and just very, very special. There’s so much joy,’ she stated, according to an account from People.

She added: ‘My favorite word in Spanish is alegría, which means joy, and there’s so much of that there, and color and passion and fun.’

The silver screen siren also described the Latin American country as ‘just different.’

Rose announced in 2020 via her social media that she had relocated to Mexico in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

‘I’m in a place called Coba (on the Yucatan peninsula),’ she said. ‘I knew [Covid-19] was going to get really bad in America and I had a moment to figure out where I wanted to be. 

‘My lease was up in New York so I came here to Mexico where I’m living for a third of the price. It’s beautiful here.’

The following year the shared that she had become a permanent Mexico resident, nearly one year after relocating.

Appearing on The Dab Roast, she stated: ‘I just got my permanent residency card from Mexico, and I’m so grateful to have it. 

‘This is a really healing land here and it is truly magical.’

Since turning her back on Hollywood, Rose, who continues as an activist, found a new passion for music.

In a statement posted to her website in 2020, she said, ‘When I was a small child going through tough times, I created a utopian world in my mind and I named it Planet 9.

‘I felt safe on this invented planet of mine. I also used to wonder what sounds existed on my planet.’ 

Rose said she had forgotten about her imaginary planet until astronomers found a new planet and named it Planet 9.

With that, she launched her debut album, Planet 9, in April 2020.

Before ditching stardom for a more relaxed lifestyle, Rose had been a prominent voice in the #MeToo movement after naming producer Harvey as her alleged rapist.

Once a Hollywood heavy-hitter, Harvey became a symbol of sexual misconduct after media reports revealed allegations against him in 2017.

In total, some 60 women came forward with harrowing allegations against the producer and he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California.

Harvey is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence which began in 2018, and he was convicted again in a New York retrial in June 2025.

Looking back, the actress shared during the 90s Con conversation: ‘I had to talk for a lot of years, kind of more than normal people might.’

‘There’s a point where I just got really talked out. I just wanted to listen,’ she reflected, adding: ‘I wanted silence, and I wanted to listen more than I wanted to talk.’

The actress acknowledged that her move hasn’t been all smooth sailing.

‘There’s things about it that are difficult, just like anywhere, and it’s certainly a challenge sometimes, doing things when, at first, you don’t really know the language,’ she admitted.

‘You’re navigating a totally different system. You learn very quickly, though,’ she noted.

In June 2021, Rose posted an update to her Instagram Story in which she revealed that she had dealt with several hardships, including depression. 

‘Depression is an intense beast. If you’ve read my book I speak openly about depression, trauma, PTSD.

‘I speak of my history with a mind that wants me to sleep forever. It blocks the sun for so many of us,’ she wrote.

‘But what I know is that there will be light again.

‘And the day will come when the weight of sadness will disappear. And we will raise our faces to the sun.’

However, since her move to Mexico, the future looks upwards for Rose, who has been on a road to finding her authentic self and living a reality ‘that’s a bit softer’.

She currently has multiple projects in the works, including another music single, an acting project in Paris, and narration duties on a short film directed by Baby Yors titled Any Moment Now. 

Speaking about her self-development and wanting to live life ‘with so much joy,’ Rose told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘The ultimate power move right now is not to be on that chess board. 

‘I don’t want to have my head spinning every other minute with this or with that, I’ve done that. 

‘The stuff that’s really important has a way of filtering through, and you realise what you can do, what you can change and what you can’t.’