• Rose McGowan as: Cherry Darling
• Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
• Selected Cast: Freddy Rodriguez, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin, Naveen Andrews
• Written by: Robert Rodriguez
• Release Year: 2007
• Genre: Horror
• MPAA Rating: R

In Rodriguez's retro-futuristic Planet Terror, married doctors William and Dakota Block (Josh Brolin and Marley Shelton) find their graveyard shift inundated with townspeople ravaged by sores. Among the wounded is Cherry (Rose McGowan), a go-go dancer whose leg was ripped from her body during a roadside attack. As the invalids quickly become enraged aggressors, Cherry and her ex-boyfriend Wray (Freddy Rodríguez) lead a team of accidental warriors into the night, hurtling towards a destiny that will leave millions infected, countless dead, and a lucky few struggling to find the last safe corner of planet terror.

In Planet Terror Rose McGowan portrays Cherry Darling, a gogo-dancer who is too good at what she does, meaning she should think about doing something else, and think, she does. But that's the problem with goals: they become the thing you talk about, instead of the things you do. Cherry is a wanderer, who renames herself with each new job. Her dream is to become a stand-up comedian. After one final tearful tease, Cherry ditches her dead-end job to chase her dream of a life beyond the four seedy walls of Skip's go-go bar. Her travels lead her to a backwoods barbecue and a chance encounter with a lost love, Wray. And that's just the beginning of her journey. First wounded, then equipped, and finally empowered, one night will change Cherry forever.

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"Cherry is certainly the character closest to my heart I've ever played and probably in some ways closest to me. I'm not saying I'm a loser per se, but Cherry gets this gold carrot yanked away. It's not even a gold carrot, it's just a regular one. She keeps thinking something is going to happen in her life, yet nothing does."

"More than anything it was the way Cherry related to my own life—not to sound like a victim, but the way you think everything's working out great, and then something comes and knocks you on your ass. Robert and I have talked about how he has fantastic luck, so we call him Four-Leaf; whereas I generally have not great luck, so I call myself Two-Leaf. And Cherry's pretty goddamn two-leaf, too, at times going down to negative-one-leaf. I also completely related to her struggles and eventually coming out on top. And the role gave me the opportunity to be funny, to cry, and to save the world—that's usually three different movies."

"Playing Cherry was amazing and I think, probably til I die; she will always be one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played. And I feel quite protective towards her, so hopefully nobody will put her down. And if they do, she can just shoot them in the face with her machine gun."

"The problems with that leg were manifold. I would have to run up a hill as fast as anyone else, while on my regular leg I had on a 4-inch high-heel boot and on the other a heavy gray cast with LED lights all over it [for CGI compositing later in post-production]. They made it lighter as the movie went on."

"I'm really proud of what I had to do for this movie, not just acting-wise but physically, too. I've got a body here to sip tea and wear a petticoat, and instead I'm doing a lot of... pliable! I do pliable things with my body."

"If there are amputee fetishists out there, I think this movie's for them."

"My character Cherry starts out as this girl whose life is a bit on the skids and all the sudden I kinda have to save the universe." [shrugs] "You know how that goes."

"The whole experience was completely schizophrenic, but in the best way."

On Cherry's walk
"Robert actually helped me a lot with the walk, and I tried to watch people with one-and-a-half legs around town, but I just felt too cruel staring at them—I’d always turn away at the last minute."

On Cherry & Pam
"They were extremely different. Quentin and I had talked about Pam being blonde; I felt that because her face gets hurt just a little bit, I wanted her to look really soft and angelic. Whereas I wanted Cherry to have more of an exotic feel, with pale skin, black hair, and red lips. It’s kind of like working from the outside in: They both needed to have really strong, separate identities; making Pam look soft was key to the character. The roles were equally fantastic in completely different ways, and obviously it’s anybody’s dream to do two things like that back-to-back—it was like having two different amazing meals."

"You get the usual scripts and it's like, "Can we all grow brains and not make another stripper film?" Okay, I was a go-go dancer in the beginning of Planet Terror, but it was kind of sweet rather than tawdy. This girl, God bless her, is kind of a loser. Really sad, floating through life, and then she loses half her leg, and that just doesn't bode well."

On Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
"They're about the coolest people you could ever hope to work for."

On Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
"Quentin's style is a more controlled insanity, and Robert's is really quiet and focused because he's got so much going on. He's shooting it and then he's editing it in his head, and then he goes into his rough edit on a playback machine. It was very funny because Quentin and Robert use the same crew. So everyone was very quiet on Robert's set and then a little wild on Quentin's set. I guess it's just that you take on the personality of the captain of the ship."

Robert Rodriguez on Rose McGowan
"Rose McGowan, no one else could play Cherry. She has to be within the action, she has to be sexy, and romantic, and... I had written some music, the main Grindhouse theme, which you hear in the trailer. 'Rose, can you dance?' 'Yeah', 'Well, I want you to dance during the opening credits. Now you're a dancer.'"

From Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
"In the performance of her life, McGowan throws herself into the juicy, sexy, funny, comic book hero role of Cherry Darling."

From Paul Travers, Rolling Stone
"McGowan is dynamite as Cherry Darling."

From Mick LaSelle, San Fransico Chronicle
"And, of course, there's the go-go dancer with a dream - played by Rose McGowan, in the best showcase of her career so far."

From Tim Goernert, JoBlo
"In Planet Terror Rose McGowan, who plays Cherry, was ridiculously hot and spectacular in the opening credits! CRACK-BOOM! For a chick who has a machine gun for a leg, she re-defines what a hot badass woman is! Move over Sarah Connor and Ripley 'cause Cherry is the new action girl on the scene!"

From The Arrow, Arrow in the Head
"The incredible cast in this madhouse thankfully ran with that sweet joo-joo all the way! Rose McGowan was all around class, sass, confidence and sexiness! Cherry was a fantastic character and McGowan wrangled it effortlessly! Think Ripley from Alien but hotter than hell and sporting a dangerous yet arousing attitude! I'd kill to see Cherry in her own movie! KILLL!"

From The Arrow, Arrow in the Head
"Rose McGowan (Cherry) exuded powerful confidence, charm and sensuality. She led Planet Terror like the acting trooper that she is. Impressive performance!"

Quotes: Her Character

• Cherry: "Name's Cherry Darling..." Wray: "Sounds like a stripper name" Cherry: "No, it sounds like a go-go dancer name. There's a difference." • Wray: "That's my jacket. I looked for that jacket for two weeks." Cherry: "Oh, really, Wray? How long did you look for me?" Wray: "The jacket belonged to me. You didn't." • Cherry: "Look, you were being an unbelievable dick. I was walking out on you. I was cold, I took your fucking jacket. So, if you're go on one of your psycho, obsessive, controlling rants about a fucking jacket, then fucking take it 'cuz I'd rather fucking freeze than fucking hear about it one more time." • Wray: "Did you find what was in the pocket?" Cherry: "Fuck no." Wray: "Look for it." Cherry: [searches through one pocket] Wray: "No, the other one." Cherry: [searches through the other pocket and takes out a box with a ring inside it] Wray: "I was gonna give it to you, but you left me. 'Cuz you took the jacket..." Cherry & Wray: "...and I looked for it for two weeks." Wray: "Read it." Cherry: "Two against the world." Wray: "Remember that?" Cherry: "I never forgot it." • Wray: "So what are you going to do now?" Cherry: "I'm going to be a stand-up comedian." Wray: "You're not funny." Cherry: "That's what I keep trying to tell everybody but they all say I'm hilarious." Wray: "But you're not." Cherry: "There's a difference between being frank... and being dick." • Cherry: "I was gonna be a stand-up comedian. Who is gonna laugh now?" Wray: "Some of the best jokes are about criples." • Cherry: "I'm Cherry." Dakota: "You sure are." • Cherry: "It's go go, not cry cry." • Cherry: "I don't know if I can be that optimistic right now. I'm spinning down that drain. No way out." Dakota: "She'd tell me, when you're caught in that downward spiral... Reach up." Cherry: "What if there's nothing up there." Dakota: "Just reach up." • Cherry: "I'm not leaving you like this. Motherfuckers around here eat roadkill... I finally made you laugh. See, I'm funny." • Cherry: "No, baby, you can't go. Two against the world, remember? " • Cherry: "I'm like you said I would be. I find the lost... The weary... Those that have no hope. I find them and I lead them." • JT: "Hey, hey. You want some barbeque? Best in Texas." Cherry: "Oh, no thanks." JT: "What's the matter? You don't eat meat?" Cherry: "Oh, I eat meat. I also eat lots of shit." Cherry: [grins] "See that?" JT: "What's that?" Cherry: "Shit-eating grin." JT: [laughs] "You ought to be a comedian." Cherry: "What do you think of the leg?" JT: [laughs] "Sure is funny." Trivia & Facts • The character of Cherry Darling was largely based on Rose McGowan herself. For example, Rose is often talking about her "useless talents", which is something that comes up in the movie several times. The name of Cherry Darling also came from Rose, who told Robert Rodriguez that she would like to have a daughter with that name. • Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are long time friends and have collaborates many times, most recently with Sin City. • Quentin Tarantino was a big fan of Charmed and used to call McGowan with questions about the show. • Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino both wanted Rose in their films. Rose auditioned separately for both roles. • Rose did a lot of her own stunts and suffered minor injuries. • Rose was working on the final few episodes of Charmed while filming Planet Terror in Texas from Thursdays to Sundays. She would get back to LA for Charmed by Monday. Needless to say, she was exhausted! • Rose sang on three tracks on the Planet Terror soundtrack: "Useless Talent #32", "You Belong to Me" and "Two Against The World". • One of Cherry's other names/nicknames is Palomita. Palomita means "little white dove" in Spanish. Rose's character also wears a dove necklace in the film. • Robert Rodriguez confirmed on his special edition release of Planet Terror that there will be a special double disc of Grindhouse!