TV's 'Charmed' star talks
Essentially Rose
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.28.2008
Rose McGowan is on the phone to talk about one thing and one thing only — her guest appearance on Turner Classic Movies as co-host of "The Essentials," in which she and Robert Osborne discuss and introduce classic films such as "The Apartment" and "Modern Times." The new season begins March 8.
Everything else is off limits, including upcoming projects and her reported engagement to director Robert Rodriguez. You could try asking her about the weather, but even something as innocuous as that would get you shut down by the pushy publicist who hangs on the other line, butting in whenever the conversation drifts from "The Essentials."
McGowan, 34, says she's been writing recently, with a partner, but when asked who that was, the publicist bored in as if I were asking for her Social Security number. She did at least clear up one rumor — that she has some sort of connection to Tucson.
McGowan said she enjoys visiting, but she's never stayed here for an extended period of time. "I've never lived there," she said. "But I like to go to Miraval."
McGowan wasn't allowed to talk about much, but she says that, as her career has gone on, she's become a student of film, often sequestering herself for hours to watch classic movies. After TCM contacted McGowan for this latest gig, she went to France to shoot a movie and spent her nights researching the movies in the series she hadn't yet seen. She took notes while watching and came up with pithy analyses to use on the show. In a press release promoting her guest stint, she made the following observations:
"Rebecca" — "A great, atmospheric gothic-horror-romance."
"Paths to Glory" — "Not a war film, but a horror film about a man's ego."
"Modern Times" — "Chaplin is great at intertwining social commentary with physicality."
"A Face in the Crowd" — "A great example of why actors shouldn't be typecast."
"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" — "A masculine film with great, subversive feminism."
"Woman of the Year" — "Proves you can be a feminist and still be a man."
Of Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," McGowan said the director was the "master of human loneliness."
In the phone interview, McGowan said she read a book on Wilder to help prepare her for the show.
"They aren't really old movies," she said. "Something that came out 50 or 60 years ago that I haven't seen is new to me."
She said she doesn't like all the films selected by "The Essentials" but believes they're all worth watching.
"I respect what goes into the making of a movie too much" to be bored, she said. "I sit through and watch all the end credits. I want to see who did the costumes and the lighting. It's kind of tough with some of the older movies because the credits come at the beginning."
McGowan, whose most recent films include Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," says she hasn't starred in anything worthy of being selected by "The Essentials."
"I think there are parts of my movies that would qualify, but not a whole movie."
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