During a chat for the 'Off Menu' podcast, the former 'Charmed' actress also claims to be a study subject at Harvard Medical School after it's discovered that she has extraordinary taste buds.
- April 17, 2019
AceShowbiz - Rose McGowan lost her sense of smell after hitting her head on a car door five years ago.
The former "Charmed" actress was interviewed for the Off Menu podcast with Ed Gamble and James Acaster and revealed that she got hit in the head with a car door in a "freak valet accident" in Los Angeles and lost her ability to smell.
"I found out about five years ago. I did a series of tests at Harvard because I lost my sense of smell in a freak accident. They were studying me because I could still taste which is normally interrelated," she explained to the British comedians.
"Not being able to smell, I've had to get gas monitors for my house and things like that because I accidentally left the gas on one night and didn't know because I couldn't smell it... There are some inherent dangers that come with not smelling. I can only use bath products I have always used".
The 45-year-old, a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement, subsequently underwent tests with experts at Harvard Medical School and discovered that she had acquired an extraordinary sense of taste.
"I'm what they call a super taster, I have extraordinary taste buds. Afterwards, everything became like a taste explosion and too much. That's why they were studying me at Harvard Medical School," she continued. "I would go once every couple of months. I was in New York so would just go down to Boston which is a couple of states away.
"They would have strips on my tongue seeing the acid levels and trying to get me to smell things - but I couldn't".
Her comments come as it was revealed she will make her debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland with her one-woman show Planet 9 in August . She will perform the show - which will be a mix of memoir, music, storytelling, projections and performance - at the Assembly Hall.
