IT was a searing indictment of Hollywood, Donald Trump and his followers as well as the Democratic Party, and cults of all descriptions.

Rose McGowan, the American actress, author, director and activist, who has been at the centre of the downfall of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the rise of the Me Too movement, held a capacity audience rapt at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last night.

McGowan discussed her book, Brave, which she wrote in the time leading up to, and after, her 2017 accusation that Weinstein had raped her.

In a candid session, she said she estimated Weinstein had assaulted thousands of women.

The actress detailed her view of Hollywood as a cult-like system where men in positions of power such as Weinstein routinely sexually assault women. She said she had first been molested when she was 14.

“The whole ‘casting couch’ idea, that’s such a myth: it’s the rape couch,” she said.

The actress also said despite what she said was his open sexism and racism, she thought that President Donald Trump and his “cult” of followers would be good for the US in the long run as their behaviour and beliefs were so out in the open.

McGowan, who said she was now without a home and that she was living a “not optimal” itinerant lifestyle, also said that people in the Democratic Party in the US had tried to protect Weinstein.

The film producer has since been charged with rape and a series of other sexual offences.

The Herald:

(Actress Ashley Judd with her then husband, Scots racing driver Dario Franchitti, in 2012)

Many women have accused Weinstein, once one of the most powerful men in the movie industry, of sexual assault in the US and the UK, including Ashley Judd, who has told of his sexual harassment and subsequent successful attempts to stop her getting leading roles in movies.

“Weinstein’s protection came from the Democratic Party, far more than Hollywood,” McGowan said, in a discussion with the writer Afua Hirsch.

“He was their de-facto cult leader and their star, and he had been thanked as many times as God at the Oscars, a dead heat.

“He set up his whole operation to do this, and he tended to go for anybody, the scale of it, the sheer magnitude, it is probably in the thousands.”

Talking about the assault, which took place in his suite in a hotel, she said: “I was so mad at myself, because I had survived so much already using my ‘street smarts’... I was furious with myself, because I had let down my guard because I thought this person, this bigwig, would be safe, and in fact it was the direct opposite.

“But it is pretty great that we have shown we can cut off the heads of power, but it’s been a hard last 10 months.”

She added: “I just wanted him to stop. I wanted the lying to stop, and for his protection to stop.”

McGowan said she had some personal insight into the behaviours of cults, as her childhood was spent in the Children of God cult in Italy, which her father ran. On Trump, she said: “I do think Trump has done us a favour, if we can survive him –which is an ‘if’.

“In the sense of clearly showing us what racism is, clearly what sexism is, and the thing is, he is doing what they all did before, he just says it... he is so dumb that he actually says it, and let’s us all in on the secret.

“I must admit I do like watching him on mute, and playing the [Carl Orff] ‘Carmina Burana’ or something and watching his hands flail around.”

McGowan said that a lot of Trump’s supporters, however, were “right on target about Hollywood”.

“It’s fake, it’s faux-liberal, masquerading as PC people and doing crap things in the background – but somehow they cannot see the giant elephant in the room, in their own back yard,” she said.

“That’s a cult – Trump supporters are a cult.

“He’s their leader, he uses trigger words, he says the same thing over and over.”

The event filled the Main Theatre at the book festival, which has been expanded in size this year.

“At the end of the day, if all you have is yourself, that’s what you fight to keep,” McGowan added.

The Herald:

Taking questions from the audience in the hour-long session, she said she would like to pursue a career as a director, but is also writing a new book, Trust, about the last tumultuous year in her life.

McGowan said that that there were “still a lot of predators” in Hollywood, and the “rot starts at the top”.

“Personally, I don’t engage with a lot of Hollywood product,” she said.

“I don’t want their thoughts in my mind.

“At the same time, I love classic film, but I guess if you are going to have rotten thoughts, take it from the masters.”

The actress said she had sold her house in Hollywood, and seemed to light-heartedly joke that she was now looking to live in the UK.

“My life is a little strange, I live nowhere, I feel like it’s best to move around, I had a lot of scary people tailing me,” she said.

“I had investigators, spies – this has all been documented.

“Metaphorically I have burnt it down so I am trying to find a place for me in the world.”

She added: “The stress of the last year almost snapped me. It was hard. I felt like I was manning the Titanic and refusing to let it sink.”