Rose McGowan has spoken out against Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman’s recent column questioning Renée Zellweger’s appearance in the new trailer for Bridget Jones’s Baby.
The actor and film-maker, who made headlines last year after revealing she was fired by her agent for pointing out sexism in a casting call for an Adam Sandler movie, penned a guest column for the Hollywood Reporter in which she said that Gleiberman’s article, titled “Renee Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself Has She Become a Different Actress?” was “vile, damaging, stupid and cruel”.
In Gleiberman’s column, which broadly tackles plastic surgery in Hollywood, he writes: “Watching the trailer, I didn’t stare at the actress and think: She doesn’t look like Renée Zellweger. I thought: She doesn’t look like Bridget Jones! ... Celebrities, like anyone else, have the right to look however they want, but the characters they play become part of us. I suddenly felt like something had been taken away.”
In her impassioned piece, McGowan labels Gleiberman as “an active endorser of what is tantamount to harassment and abuse of actresses and women,” and “a bully on semi-glossy paper”.
She also calls out peers who have worked with Zellweger for not coming to the Oscar winner’s defense since Gleiberman’s article was published on 30 June. “Any studio that Renée Zellweger has made money for, any co-star she’s supported or anyone who takes a percentage of her income should be doing what’s right; they should be calling this harassment out,” writes McGowan.
McGowan strikes a personal tone in her column by frequently comparing her experience in the industry to that now endured by Zellweger. In 2014, Zellweger became the subject of intense online speculation about whether she had had cosmetic surgery to change her looks, after making an appearance at Elle Magazine’s Women in Hollywood awards. Gleiberman’s piece makes direct reference to that rumour.
“As a woman who has been bullied for years by a vicious pack of lower beings, I can relate to this,” writes McGowan. “Many are probably silent because they do not wish for the proverbial pen to be pointed at them; I say point away. Short of killing me, you can’t possibly do more than what was done to me in my tenure as an actress.”
McGowan ends her letter by reposting the bulk of Gleiberman’s column, with Zellweger’s name replaced with those of famous male actors, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. The intention: “To illustrate what women in the public eye go through ad nauseam.”
Gleiberman reportedly declined to comment on McGowan’s piece.
McGowan has been on crusade to speak out on sexism in Hollywood since getting fired following the 2015 casting incident. Most recently, she shared a Facebook post criticising advertisements for X-Men: Apocalypse which show Jennifer Lawrence’s character in a chokehold. Soon after, 20th Century Fox apologised for its marketing campaign.
