Director Robert Rodriguez says he cast Rose McGowan in 'Grindhouse' to stick it to Weinstein

Director Robert Rodriguez says he cast Rose McGowan in 'Grindhouse' to stick it to Weinstein

Director Robert Rodriguez is finally saying what he knew about Rose McGowan's battle with Harvey Weinstein following her alleged rape at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Rodriguez, whose credits include Sin City and Machete, shared his account in a Variety story published Friday.

He says he first met the Charmed actress at a party held during the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, where she told him she wished she could have been in Sin City, which was screening that year. However, she told him she couldn't even audition because she was blacklisted from working on any Weinstein-produced movies.

"When I asked what she meant by that, and how could she possibly be blacklisted," Rodriguez recalled. "She told me the horrifying story of what Harvey did to her seven years earlier."

He added, "My first reaction was one of shock. I recall clearly what I said next, “My God, why didn’t you say anything? People would have stood up for you! And where was your fiancé during all this? I would have at least beaten the crap out of Harvey if I had heard that.” Rose said they didn’t know what to do. She confided that a female attorney had told her that because she had done nudity in movies that no jury would believe her and that it would turn into a he-said-she-said case.

Rodriguez told her he knew of a loophole they could exploit: "I made movies all those years for Dimension and Bob Weinstein," he explained in the Variety piece. "So I explained that if I cast her in my next film, Harvey couldn’t suddenly tell me no, because my first question would be “Oh, really? Why can’t I cast her?” And I was sure he would not want to tell me why.

That next film as 2007's Grindhouse/Deathproof, a double-feature he was writing with Quentin Tarantino, a frequent Weinstein collaborator.

"I wanted her to have a starring role in a big movie to take her OFF the blacklist," he wrote, "and the best part is that we would have Harvey’s new Weinstein Company pay for the whole damn thing."

Rogriguez says they were careful not to rub their scheme in Weinstein's face out of fear of retribution for violating McGowan's non-disclosure agreement and concern he would refuse to promote Grindhouse.

"To our horror, Harvey buried our movie anyway," he said because McGowan was the lead actress, "and because we did not want to risk getting sued, we never spoke publicly about the matter. It would have been much easier on both of us if we could have just revealed why we were doing it."

He says he hopes the scandal will result in the passage of legislation that will render NDAs "legally null and void in situations where rape and assault have been committed and where power is so unequally distributed."

He added, "Since I’ve seen a distinct lack of stories coming from men who may have tried to do the right thing, I wanted to come forth to say that no matter the consequences, no matter how far you have to stick your neck out, no matter what you have to lose, that we must fight the good fight. Everyone has to make a stand and take action."