8 'Brave' Rose McGowan Revelations: Weinstein, 'Charmed,' Plastic Surgery

Born into a cult she escaped as a child, McGowan's life was plagued with abuse -- from the time a man in his late '40s shoved his tongue down her throat when she was a 14-year-old extra on a movie set, to the time Harvey Weinstein allegedly raped her.

The 44-year-old actress-turned-activist also revealed the meaning behind her iconic VMA dress, the reason she ended her engagement with Marilyn Manson, and why she once lied to the press about plastic surgery.

Read on for eight revelations from the book below.

McGowan was born into the Children of God in 1973. She described the group as the first (but not the last) cult she has been a part of, comparing the early childhood experience to her time as a Hollywood actress. Looking back, she remembered the cult encouraging sexual relationships between adults and minors, and repeatedly getting beaten by members.

Once the sexual abuse started, her father fled the cult, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves. Shortly after, McGowan's father moved on, and she was forced to go back and forth between her cruel father and naive mother. She, too, eventually left and became a homeless teen runaway.

McGowan began dating a club owner named Brett Canton, who she described as her first love, but he was stabbed to death, which traumatized McGowan. The murder is still unsolved.

Later on, the actress battled an eating disorder, courtesy of verbal abuse from another boyfriend.

"I never was able to get below 92 pounds," she wrote. "For some reason, that was my cutoff point. Because I had read about girls who were 84 pounds, I felt like a failure."

McGowan debunked previous reports that she had to get reconstructive surgery after getting into a bad car accident -- but also admitted she sparked those false reports.

McGowan got rhinoplasty in 2007 to resolve her sinus problem, but things took a turn when her surgeon accidentally poked a hole right below her right eye, leaving it to appear slightly pinched. She told the media she had to get the surgery because she was in a bad car accident, but she revealed that was her publicist's idea.

"I told my publicists what happened and they said to say it was a car accident," she wrote. "Looking back, I don't know why it mattered, but I took that advice, and so when I was asked by the press, that became the party line."

McGowan first met Weinstein when the Hollywood producer sat behind her at the premiere of her 1997 film, "Going All the Way," at Sundance Film Festival.

According to the actress, after she witnessed her female manager give Weinstein a nod of approval for her topless scene, she was invited to his hotel room to discuss previous films and her career goals. The meeting seemed civil at first, but it turned into a nightmare when she tried to leave.

McGowan wrote that as he was walking her out, he pushed her into his bathroom where he had a hot Jacuzzi waiting.

"My clothes are getting peeled off me," she wrote. "I back into the wall, but there's nowhere to go."

She alleged that Weinstein performed oral sex on her while he masturbated.

"I did what so many who experience trauma do, I disassociated and left me body," she wrote. "Detached from my body, I hover up under the ceiling, watching myself sitting on the edge of the tub, against a wall, held in place by the Monster whose face is between my legs, trapped by a beast. In this tiny room with this huge man, my mind is blank. Wake up Rose; get out of here."

"Rape to me is any violation of my body," she added. "If you enter my body via tongue, fingers, penis, object without my consent, that to me is rape and I need no law telling me what I know to be true."

Although the actress has often joked about her iconic 1998 MTV Video Music Awards outfit, the naked look was actually her way of telling the world her body didn't belong to them.

"I thought, 'You know what? You want to objectify me? You want to see a body? This is what you want? All you media men, all you photographers, you vultures, this is what you want to see? I'll show you a body.' And so I did," she wrote. "It was, of course, misinterpreted and sexualized, which was the exact opposite point I was trying to make."

McGowan wrote that her relationship with Manson was actually a breath of fresh air.

"The truth was that at the same time when he wasn't creating electrifying music, Manson was painting watercolors of my Boston terriers, while I was ordering glassware from Martha Stewart's online store," she wrote.

The couple ultimately ended their engagement in 2001 because Manson's rock star lifestyle was too much for McGowan.

"I was really in love with Manson," she wrote. "I just couldn't do the lifestyle anymore. I was too tired."

McGowan described meeting Robert Rodriguez as one of the worst moments in her life.

According to McGowan, the duo met in Cannes, where the director told her that he was unhappily married. They quickly fell in love, and he promised to be her savior in Hollywood.

But that promise didn't last long, as McGowan alleged the director became jealous, manipulative and controlling. She wrote he once believed McGowan was falling in love with "Pulp Fiction" director, Quentin Tarantino. In fact, McGowan wrote the director was so obsessed with her that he shaved his facial hair in the same pattern as actor Freddy Rodriguez so he could replace him in their "Planet Terror" make-out scene. Rodriguez's biggest sin, in her eyes, is selling the movie to Weinstein's company for distribution -- although the filmmaker has previously argued that was always the plan, since he was locked into a first-look deal with Weinstein.

"I can't tell you what it's like to be sold into the hands of the man who had assaulted me and scarred me for life," McGowan wrote. "I had to do press events with the Monster and see photos of us together, his big fat paw pulling me in to his body."

According to McGowan, only one female director was hired to be on set during her five years on the WB program, and male crew members would often "snicker in disrespect when she would direct them."

"I feel horribly about not fighting for her more, but I didn't fully understand the dynamics of what was happening," McGowan wrote. "My character was too busy talking to leprechauns to have the time."

The actress wrote that she felt the cult of Hollywood in full swing while promoting the 2007 movie on the cover of Rolling Stone with co-star Rosario Dawson. They posed naked with their bare butts pressed together. She remembered the stylists exaggerating her hair and lips so much that she couldn't even recognize herself.

"Who is this person," she wrote. "What have they done to you? This is what it's come to?"

McGowan then slowly tried to change her appearance in order to cut ties with the industry. She shaved her head and did whatever she could to distance herself from the "long, glossy Kardashian-esque" model look that agents encouraged.

McGowan wanted to audition for an Adam Sandler movie in 2015, but the casting call detailed that women should wear push-up bras on the day of their camera read. Although she was disgusted by the request, she was not surprised, so she mentioned it on Twitter, and much to her amusement, it went viral.

"I realized it was time to finally start some real conversation with the public," she said. "I would no longer be silenced."