The role that changed Patricia Arquette’s life: “I started to trust myself”
There are many great acting dynasties. The Skarsgårds, the Fondas, the tri-generational line-up of Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, and Billie Lourd. But one lineage that often slips through the cracks is the Arquettes.
The family’s roots can be traced back to comedian Cliff Arquette, but you could argue that things didn’t kick off until his grandchildren came along. Everyone knows David from roles in Scream and Eight Legged Freaks, but there’s also Rosanna, who won a BAFTA for Desperately Seeking Susan, and Alexis, a leading transgender activist. Then there’s Patricia Arquette.
One of the middle Arquette children, she is by far the most impressive member of the family in terms of accolades. She’s an Oscar winner, having scooped the ‘Best Actress’ prize for her real-time role in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. That same performance also landed her a first of three Golden Globes, and she’s also got two Emmys to add to her collection. She perhaps isn’t as prominent as her brother David – she never married one of the Friends – but her body of work is objectively more acclaimed.
One of her great early characters didn’t win her anything, though. In 1993, she appeared in the Quentin Tarantino-penned True Romance. She and Christian Slater play a newlywed couple who look forward to starting a life however. There’s just one problem – they’re on the run from the mafia after stealing a suitcase full of drugs. You didn’t think Tarantino would write something that was straightforward, did you?
Alongside Tarantino – who would go on to direct two of Arquette’s sisters in Pulp Fiction – the main creative force on True Romance was director Tony Scott. He was the one who changed the script’s original ending, which led to both of the main characters surviving the final gunfight. Arquette absolutely loved working with him, and not just because he didn’t kill off her character. As she explained to Variety, the Englishman was extremely supportive on set.
“Every single idea I had, Tony would go: ‘Brilliant! I love it!’” she revealed. “When Christian had one, he would go: ‘No, that’s terrible.’ He was like that idealistic girl dad. It changed my whole life. I started to trust myself.”
Even if you grow up in the movie industry, it can still be a daunting place. Arquette was in her mid-20s when True Romance was being made. She wasn’t a newbie by any stretch. She’d been in movies since her 1987 debut A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, but she’d never taken on a role like this. In that same interview, she spoke about how the director of that film, Chuck Russell, spent a lot of his time nervously shouting at cast members. Scott’s nurturing attitude couldn’t have been more different, and was exactly the steady hand she needed at such a pivotal point in her career.
True Romance is widely considered a classic, with Arquette’s performance being a major positive. She wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without Scott’s help. The movie industry misses him more and more every day.
