Actress, writer, activist and now as well as director, Patricia Arquette has spent her career portraying memorable characters in film and on television. Winner of both the Academy Award and the Emmy for her roles in ‘Medium’ and ‘Boyhood’, ..
Arquette has chosen to use her considerable visibility to shine a light on issues and speak for people whose voices are rarely heard and that includes Latina Women. When Patricia raised the issue of equality and fair wages for women at the 2015 Academy Awards, the world took notice. She has since galvanized a growing movement determined to achieve equality for women in the United States, which has culminated in launching a petition to compel Congress to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which gives women a clear constitutional basis for challenging discrimination. Arquette spoke in Toronto at the world premiere of her debut movie as a director. ‘Gonzo Girl’. As an actress, she has spent the last decade doing some of the most interesting work on television in award-winning shows like ‘Escape from Dannemora’, ‘Severance’ and ‘High Desert’. On those shows, she worked with director Ben Stiller who was originally going to direct Arquette again on “High Desert,” but he ended working only as a producer.
Q: Why are you so dedicated to equality?
A: It’s time for all the women in America and all the men that love women, and all the gay people, and all the people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.
Q: Also are you writing your memoirs and directing your first movie?
A: Over the years, the public has come to know aspects of me through my roles in film and television. Writing a memoir will be a new and intimate artistic journey for me, and I hope to bring to it the same honesty as a director that I have always sought to bring to my work as an actor. For many years, the crews I worked with were always saying: You should direct. You get to a point where you’ve learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of how filmmaking works, and a lot of directors just aren’t as familiar with the process of acting as an actor is.
Q: In TV you keep working as an actress and last you released the tv show, ‘High Desert’
A: Yes. I just think this is a very funny show. It’s a counterculture comedy and I think we all need to laugh right now. I think we’ll recognize different people, oddballs in your own family, and little sprinklings throughout this.
Q: ‘High Desert’ follows Peggy (Arquette), an on-and-off addict who decides to start over after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, and who becomes a private investigator, a decision that will change her life.
A: There’s just a lot of love in this show and a lot of twists and turns because all these people are wackadoo and the choices that they make are bonkers, and that kind of informs where the plot ends up going. I mean, the backstories are so vivid of these characters and so rich, and they really spend a lot of time on that because these characters are based on real people. We were trying to develop this for many years, even before I did ‘Severance’. So it was exciting that those two kinds came together at the same time
Q: In ‘High Desert’ the humor plays an important part of the story
A: The humor t’s off the charts. I was struggling not to laugh at all these people that appeared. It was an embarrassment of riches because Peggy is a different kind of wild bird. ‘High Desert’ it’s wild. There’s chaos going on and emotional highs and lows. That it is really great
Q: I would like to know has winning an Oscar changed everything?
A: I forget that I won an Oscar. I mean every time people tell me I’m like, you’re right, I did. That’s right. Yeah. Have things changed? It’s strange, you know, I think the public and the press really think it does change things drastically, but it doesn’t really. You don’t get all that many more offers. I got offered a lot of movies that weren’t put together completely or didn’t have their financing or were first-time directors or weren’t completely, you know, completely all there. So it doesn’t really change things. It changes things in people’s perception of how things should be different for you, and people’s perception of your value, which I’ve kind of struggled a little bit with because I didn’t feel that I necessarily changed or been any different. And I kind of had so much, I just stayed home for a few months and hung out with my family, letting it all simmer down.
Q: I was wondering if you are a tech savvy person off-screen?
A: I’m more of a farmer. [Laughs] I really am. I’m one of those people like, go drop me on top of the mountain. I’ll see you in five years. No, I’m not. But that’s also why I am really fascinated by it, because I feel like we’ve let the genie out of the box and there are great things that have come from technology, and then there are a lot of dangerous things that have come from and will come from technology. I mean, if you look at the great things technology has done for medicine, it’s exponentially helped us learn things about medicine and create new drugs and see the interactions so much faster than we ever could have but there’s this whole negative aspect of it. So I’m fascinated by it. I am really glad I got to grow up in a time where there weren’t even answering machines, like you’ve got a busy signal. Kids don’t know anything about what that’s like and I think it’s changing the whole experience and our human experience of the way that we communicate.
Q: Do you feel the world is perhaps worse off for the technology we have, and what piece of technology do you wish hadn’t been invented for your own life?
A: I think it’s a double-edged sword. I do think some things are great about technology. I don’t think we have used it to its full potential for the good that it could do yet. I still think we’re using it mostly. it’s a self-pleasuring thing: shopping and chatting, and things like that. But I think eventually there are people that are using it for medicine, for a greater good. Community groups, activists are working together, and I do think it’s changing the political landscape and it has. I can’t say I don’t wish the computer was invented because obviously a lot of good things have come of it. I think it’s interesting when you look at people say that A.I. could be very dangerous, I could see that.
Q: I’m curious about your decision just to do TV shows?
A: I’m an actress. I’ve been an actress for a long time. I’ve gone through a lot of different age groups in my time and I’ve seen the business change drastically in my time of working. While I think there are great anthologies and they are great in all of these things, there are still very few female leads that are middle aged in any of those things. But particularly, middle aged women, minorities, I mean, people are really having a hard time. And even people that used to be able to make a living, you know, as character actors are really not able to make a living anymore. So I think I’m very grateful to have a job all the time, to be able to work with other actors, to be around crew. I mean, I do love the business of working and making things together, talking about things. So, I’m really happy to be working.
Q: What books do you like to read?
A: I’m an artist, you know, I am also a practical actor. I like all genres. I like books. I will always be interested in art and making art. I love to read and tell stories
Q: Do you like stories centered on women?
A: Absolutely. I think it is part of the human story and I think it does belong in films and books.
Q: Do you think the entertainment industry reflects the real world?
R: No . Obviously, the entertainment business isn’t really reflecting the real world around us, or all the different people. I guess a big study just came out and women directors or, you know, 4% of the projects are being directed by women. So, when we don’t have people of color and women represented in the way they should be in our population in the entertainment business, we’re missing really important stories, we’re missing great perspectives, and we’re missing out on a lot of great talent. So I don’t know. I know a lot of people are trying to talk about it and bring awareness to it. I think part of it would be telling more stories. I think the part that I won an award for was rare in that this filmmaker thought this woman’s story was interesting. It’s not that the whole movie was about her but he valued his mom, who was a single mom and struggled to raise him and his sister.
Q: How is your Spanish?
A: Well, I only know a few words that I picked up in Los Angeles. But I like to fight for the Latin women. Latina women are further penalized because of their color or their sexual orientation. So we’re allowing that system of economic suppression to continue and it’s not good.
Q: Any Spanish author that you recommend?
A: I don’t remember right now but I remember working with great Latina artists as Penelope Cruz in ‘The Hi Lo Country’ or Kamala Lopez in ‘A Single Woman’ or in the movie ‘Girl in Progress’ with Eva Mendes and Eugenio Derbez that won an ALMA award, which honors the accomplishments made by Hispanics in film, television, and music.
Q: You debut as a director with ‘Gonzo Girl’ which is an adaptation of Cheryl Della Pietra’s novel inspired by her time as Hunter S Thompson’s assistant. What made you choose that novel?
A: Yes. I always loved Hunter S. Thompson, and it's inspired by his spirit and him. It's different, also. It's fiction, it's based on a book. But I love Hunter S. Thompson, and I love that world, and I loved the ‘90s growing up as a young woman. I like this idea that it was some kind of a mix between a ‘90s movie and the ‘60s, kind of ‘70s world of Walker Reade’s character. I like this coming-of-age of this young woman – drugs, sex, rock and roll, creativity, writing, all of that – and how it's so fun, and then once you crash and burn, it's really ugly. I was offered the supporting role of the writer’s longtime manager, Claudia, but It didn’t really speak to me in that way, but I thought it was a really interesting story. I passed at first, but then I kept thinking about the project, especially given how pivotal Thompson’s work was to me growing up.
The film, which was adapted by Rebecca Thomas and Jessica Caldwell, was a chance to explore my own experiences through the lens of Alley’s journey. I'm a codependent, and growing up with an alcoholic household, and so I thought there was really an interesting theme about self-discovery, this coming of age, but through the lens of a subconscious codependent. It’s crazy the way it feels to be a director and at your first premiere.
By María Estévez
Correspondent writer
