Rose McGowan accuses director Alexander Payne of sexual abuse: 'I was 15'

#MeToo activist and acclaimed Hollywood actor Rose McGowan stepped forward on Monday accusing director Alexander Payne of sexual misconduct.

The actor turned to her Twitter account and recalled the sexual abuse she was subjected to at the age 15 when she first auditioned for The Descendants director.

“You sat me down & played a soft-core porn movie you directed for Showtime under a different name. I still remember your apartment in Silverlake,” she wrote.

In another tweet, McGowan, who had been one of the first few women to expose convicted rapist and fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, said she was speaking up about Payne, not with intentions to “destroy”, but to get an apology from her alleged abuser.

According to reports, the Charmed actor had opened up earlier in 2018 about an incident similar to the one she is now describing with Payne, without mentioning the name.

In an interview with The Cut, McGowan told Ronan Farrow about her appalling experience of sexual assault by a “prominent man in Hollywood.”

She took to Instagram with a lengthy note about her accusation against Payne and said: “I now know I was groomed.”

“I auditioned for him at 15. After my experience with him, I quit acting entirely until I was ‘discovered’ at 21. I even tweeted a congratulations on his Oscar win in 2012, that’s how deep in the Cult of Hollywood I was.

“It wasn’t until three weeks after the Weinstein story broke that I re-evaluated the situation. I feel badly about throwing a bomb into someone’s life and career, but I guess that’s social conditioning.

“I’m more sad than angry. Sad for 15 year-old me. Sad for the adult me that still thought it was a choice I made. Grooming is real. I want you all to know that it’s not your fault if you were mentally massaged into thinking it’s okay. It is not. I know this now.

“I was not an adult. When it happened, I’d recently been left behind in Hollywood by a family member to fend for myself. The wolves preyed. Please recognize that if this has happened to you, the shame is not yours, it’s theirs. Give it back. Groomers are skilled operators and at 15, I was not aware of the warning signs.

“I named him on Twitter, but since Instagram is my softer side, I just don’t want his name here. Goddess bless us all, except for those that abuse their power. Here’s to freedom, yours and mine,” she wrote.

The activist had moved to Los Angeles back in 1980s after emancipation right when Payne too was reaching prominence.