Career:McGowan made her first appearance in a Hollywood film with a bit role in the 1992 Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man. Her role in the 1995 dark comedy The Doom Generation brought her to the attention of film critics, and she received a nomination for "Best Debut Performance" at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards. McGowan was subsequently cast in a supporting role in the 1996 hit horror film Scream.
McGowan spent the majority of the 1990s appearing in a variety of independent films, including roles in Southie, Going All the Way, and Lewis & Clark & George. In 1997, she appeared in the critically acclaimed short Seed, directed by San Francisco-born filmmaker Karin Thayer, and played opposite Peter O'Toole in the 1998 film adaptation of the Dean Koontz novel Phantoms. Notably, McGowan also starred in the 1999 comedy Jawbreaker, where she played a snooty high school student who tries to cover up a classmate's murder. That role earned McGowan a nomination for Best Villain at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.
In 2001, McGowan was cast as Paige Matthews in the popular The WB television series Charmed, as a replacement lead actress after Shannen Doherty's departure from the show. She was offered to be a producer after the seventh season alongside co-stars Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano, but turned it down. The series ended its run on May 21, 2006.
In May 2005, McGowan portrayed actress/singer Ann-Margret in Elvis, a Golden Globe-winning CBS mini-series about the life of Elvis Presley. That same year, she lent her voice to the video game Darkwatch as a femme fatale named Tala. The game was published by Capcom for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
In 2006, McGowan had a brief role in Brian De Palma's Academy Award-nominated film The Black Dahlia. The following year, she starred in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse, released on April 6, 2007. Cast in utterly divergent roles, McGowan appears in both portions of the film, as go-go dancing Cherry Darling in Planet Terror, and as Pam in Death Proof. McGowan attended the 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival to promote Death Proof along with Robert Rodriguez, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Zoë Bell, and Quentin Tarantino.
According to Variety, McGowan signed on to play B-movie staple Susan Cabot in the upcoming film Black Oasis. Director Stephan Elliott (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) has penned and will direct the film based on a Premiere article by John H. Richardson. The film has currently been placed on hold.McGowan was a co-host with Robert Osborne on TCM's film-series program The Essentials, on which a classic Hollywood film is shown every week. McGowan was on the show for the 2008 season before being replaced by Alec Baldwin.
In 2007, McGowan was cast in Fifty Dead Men Walking. When in production, the movie was first titled Man on the Run but is now officially called Fifty Dead Men Walking. Filming began in Northern Ireland later in October 2007 and went on until December 2007. The movie, also starring Ben Kingsley, was released in August 2009.
Elle Magazine originally reported that Rose McGowan has been signed to play the title role in the future remake of Barbarella, fending off strong competition from other actresses including Sienna Miller. The film is to be directed by Robert Rodriguez and to involve close friend Quentin Tarantino as a member of the crew. Following rumors suggesting that Universal Studios had stopped funding the film as they were unconvinced McGowan could carry such an iconic role, the actress confirmed on MTV that the comments were untrue and unfounded and that the film was still in production. On May 5 2009, it was officially confirmed by Robert Rodriguez on MTV News, that Barbarella would not go into production due to filming location difficulties, even though a lot of planning had already been completed.
In June 2008, USA Today reported that McGowan had been signed to play the title role in a third project with Robert Rodriguez (who takes on the role of the film's producer), known as Red Sonja.
Music:While dating Marilyn Manson, McGowan appeared in a music video for the song "Coma White", and also performed backing vocals on the song "Posthuman." Both of these songs are available on the album Mechanical Animals.
McGowan appeared on a BT track called "Superfabulous" from his album Emotional Technology, which was also featured on the final Charmed soundtrack, The Final Chapter. The song has been featured in several films, including Win a Date with Tad Hamilton and Raising Helen. She wrote and recorded a song titled "Protection," which was featured in her 2001 film Strange Hearts. McGowan has also appeared in the Imperial Teen music video for "Yoo Hoo", which was featured on the Jawbreaker soundtrack.
McGowan has expressed interest in recording an album of her own. During an interview with Living TV, she said, "I was actually thinking of going back and doing more soulful tunes and older tunes...and I would love to, when I have a little bit more time." In the Charmed episode "Sense and Sense Ability," McGowan performed, in character, a cover of the Peggy Lee classic "Fever." In 2007, it was announced that McGowan would be performing three songs from the Planet Terror portion of Grindhouse. These songs were released on the soundtrack by the Varese Sarabande label. The songs are entitled "You Belong to Me" (a Dean Martin/Jo Stafford cover), "Useless Talent #32" and "Two Against the World."
Modeling:McGowan was the face of American clothing company Bebe from 1998 to 1999. She was also the cover model for the Henry Mancini tribute album Shots in the Dark, which was released in 1996. In addition to clothing endorsements, McGowan has appeared on numerous magazine covers, including Seventeen, Interview, Maxim, GQ, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. She has also frequently been featured on Maxim, FHM and Stuff magazine's sexiest women lists.
Awards:
In 1996, McGowan was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in The Doom Generation. A few years later, at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, she was nominated for "Best Villain" for her role in Jawbreaker. In 2005, McGowan won "Best Sister" at the Family TV Awards, for her role on Charmed. In 2006, Blender included her on their list of the sexiest women of TV and film. The most recent award won by McGowan was under the category Femme Fatale for the 2007 Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards, which aired June 13, 2007. The award was for the role of Cherry in Grindhouse. McGowan was nominated for "Scream Queen" at the 2007 Scream Awards on Spike TV for her performance in Grindhouse.
