Alexander Payne responded to Rose McGowan’s claims of statutory rape on Friday, calling her recent social media posts “simply untrue.”
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In a guest column statement posted on Deadline and sent to The Hollywood Reporter from a rep for the filmmaker, Payne details his version of events from nearly 30 years ago, interactions first brought to light by McGowan Aug. 17 on Twitter. McGowan claimed that when she was 15 years old, Payne showed her “a soft-core porn movie” he directed for Showtime under a different name. “You left me on a street corner afterwards,” she wrote before adding additional details on Instagram that it was “sexual relations” she categorized as being “groomed” as an underage aspiring actress following an audition.
Payne claims McGowan “is mistaken in saying we met when she was fifteen, in the late 1980s. I was a full-time film student at UCLA from 1984 until 1990, and I know that our paths never crossed,” he writes. “She claims that I showed her a ‘soft-core porn movie’ I had directed for Showtime ‘under a different name.’ This would have been impossible since I had never directed anything professionally, lurid or otherwise. I have also never worked for Showtime or directed under any name other than my own.”
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Payne claims that they met “years later” in 1991 for his directorial debut when she auditioned for a part in a comic short he directed for the Playboy Channel. He is credited, per IMDb, with having directed an installment of Inside Out for Playboy that year. McGowan, now 46, turned 18 on Sept. 5, 1991. “Although she did not get the part, she left a note for me at the casting desk asking that I call her. I had no reason to question how old she was, since the role she read for required an actor who was of age. We later went out on a couple of dates and remained on friendly terms for years,” he writes.
Following the publication of Payne’s column, THR reached out to McGowan for comment and did not hear back. She responded to Variety, saying, “F—- him and his lies is my comment. I told Payne to acknowledge and apologize, he has not. I said I didn’t want to destroy, now I do. Why do these men always lie? I will now make it a mission to expose him. I am not the only one.”
Payne’s full statement is below.
Rose McGowan and I have always had very cordial interactions, and I have admired her commitment to activism and her voice in an important, historic movement. However, what she has said about me in recent social media posts is simply untrue.
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Rose is mistaken in saying we met when she was fifteen, in the late 1980s. I was a full-time film student at UCLA from 1984 until 1990, and I know that our paths never crossed. She claims that I showed her a “soft-core porn movie” I had directed for Showtime “under a different name.” This would have been impossible since I had never directed anything professionally, lurid or otherwise. I have also never worked for Showtime or directed under any name other than my own.
Rose and I did meet years later, in 1991, during my first directing job, when she auditioned for a comic short I was making for a Playboy Channel series. Although she did not get the part, she left a note for me at the casting desk asking that I call her. I had no reason to question how old she was, since the role she read for required an actor who was of age. We later went out on a couple of dates and remained on friendly terms for years.
While I cannot allow false statements about events twenty-nine years ago to go uncorrected, I will continue to wish only the best for Rose.
Alexander Payne
September 4, 2020
