Rose McGowan did not have a typical childhood. She was born in Florence, Italy in 1975 and was raised by her parents (whom she describes as hippies) on a commune for the Children of God cult in Italy. (a sex cult)
Her parents didn't want to be involved with American culture. In fact, Rose didn't even speak English until she was 10, when her parents moved back to the States. At that point in her life, the actress-to-be had yet to see a movie; in fact, she didn't even know about them. Movies and television were beyond her experience. Her education was limited to little artsy schools where the kids laid around listening to Kurt Vonnegut. Any traditional education was provided by her mother. Unlike River Phoenix, who was also raised in the Children of God cult, Rose says that even early on she was adamantly un-hippy and has never bought into that lifestyle.
After leaving the commune when she was 15, she was pretty much on her own. Over the years, she had a variety of jobs and often had to lie about her age in order to get them. She worked as a waitress, sales clerk, ticket taker and other minimum wage jobs. She was even forced to live on the streets for a while.
Her first acting opportunity came in 1992's Encino Man, but it was over three years before she did any other roles. Her first real break came while she was in L.A. to attend arts school and Gregg Araki met her outside of a gym and decided to cast her in his Sundance entry, Doom Generation. Despite the fact that most of her fame has come from more commercial films like Scream, Bio-Dome and Phantoms, most of her roles have been independent productions, and she is often compared to indie-queen Parker Posey.
McGowan enjoys making movies but her real interest lies with traditional art. Unlike her father the artist, Rose is not interested in creating but would rather be a curator and revive museums. She hates the way so many museums have become archaic and unfriendly to younger people. She dreams of opening them up so that the average person can connect to the art within.
Rose is described differently by different people; her personality is hard to pin down. She claims that because of her way of telling jokes dead-pan, people sometimes have a hard time telling when she is joking or when she is serious. One thing is for certain, she loves to shock people and she believes in speaking her mind.
In Hollywood, an actor or actress who is described as complicated may just be a little off-beat or may not follow the social conventions of the town, but they are rarely actually all that difficult to understand. Rose McGowan is an exception to that rule. Because of her upbringing and the fact that she views acting as a job (albeit a good one) rather than a lifestyle, she isn't quite the typical Hollywood up-and-comer. She was raised away from the sanitized "American experience" that the entertainment industry creates for us and that we take for granted. Her unique and not-so-dreamy background has also given experience beyond what you see in someone her age. This gives her a point of view very different from the rest of the actors and actresses in her generation.