As the ongoing saga between Natalie Portman and Rose McGowan continues, McGowan has announced that she regrets attacking Natalie Portman for her Oscar dress protest, which saw the Black Swan actor wear a Dior couture cape embroidered with the names of the female directors snubbed by the Academy.
While McGowan didn’t address Portman personally, she wrote on Twitter: “My critique should’ve been about Hollywood’s ongoing culture of silence. I realise that by critiquing someone personally, I lost sight of the bigger picture,” before adding: “All voices, however, spoken, are valid. Let’s all keep pushing boundaries in whatever way we can, it’s time to get loud.”
Portman’s act of subtle protest was put to the test at last week’s Oscars ceremony when McGowan called her a “fraud” and “an actress acting the part of someone who cares” in a scathing Facebook post. Her reasoning was that Portman only speaks about working with women directors, but has only worked with two her entire career, if you count her own directorial debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness.
In response to McGowan, Portman released a statement agreeing with the actor-activist that her actions weren’t “brave”, but rather, “brave is a term I more strongly associate with actions like those of the women who have been testifying against Harvey Weinstein the last few weeks, under incredible pressure”.
Now that’s all settled, can we put this to rest?