Patricia Arquette Is Fired Up About Women’s Rights and Ignoring Vanity
Patricia Arquette Is Fired Up About Women’s Rights and Ignoring Vanity. Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images.
Patricia Arquette doesn’t play by the rules—and we love her for it. At the 2015 Oscars, Arquette told E! host Ryan Seacrest that she was too busy to get a manicure. Rather than wasting time with extra primping she was dealing with eco-charity work for a new site called Givelove.org. So, no to the mani cam, the woman had more important things to do. Instead of talking about her nails, Arquette went on to give a moving shout out to struggling parents everywhere about her role in Boyhood. “So many kids have said to me that they called their mom and apologized because I don’t look exactly like their mom and I didn’t speak exactly like their mom, they had enough distance to actually kind of see their mom in a different light.”
Arquette who was born into a family of actors (siblings are Rosanna and David Arquette) has been drumming to her own beat since she was young—starting with her take on beauty. “When I was a teenager, when my parents said, “Do you want to get braces and straighten your teeth,” I said I didn’t. I think I didn’t want to look perfect; I was more complicated than that,” she told Hitfix magazine. Of course, Arquette went on to play the bombshell in films like True Romance. But in 2005, for her role in TV’s hit Medium, she leapt at the chance to play a less glamorous character. “I wanted to play a woman who looks normal. It’s important for me to be real.”
Actress Meryl Streep get’s fired up at Patricia Arquette’s moving speech.
That aversion to vanity, is one of the reasons why Arquette’s turn in Boyhood is so powerful. In one movie, Arquette, now 46, aged over 12 years, looking like a harrowed, working single mother trying to keep it together. Her character didn’t have time to be focused on her looks and that made her portrayal feel all the more real. As Arquette told Hitfix, “You’re programmed in your own mind by society, and you do see fault with yourself and that you’re not supposed to have faults if you’re an actor in this business. And part of what was exciting (about Boyhood) was just not Hollywood-ing that up and being frankly honest about this character and not looking as great as you could all the time.” Ultimately, whatever role she plays Arquette brings a depth and vulnerability that far transcends her outer shell.
Patricia Arquette making her speech acceptance speech at the Oscars. Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images.
It’s no surprise that when Arquette won her first Oscar, the actress used the moment to inspire and put the spotlight on women’s rights in Hollywood and elsewhere. “To every woman that gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody’s equal rights,” she declared. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.” And with that both J Lo and Meryl Streep went wild. Streep even did a fist pump. The comment was not only celebrating women, but also referring to the fact that often female stars are treated differently. One of the many tidbits leaked in the Sony hack, was the fact that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence didn’t earn the same as their male counterparts in American Hustle. Arquette who is sure to be getting more plum roles, and more money with an Oscar under her belt, used her moment to focus on girl power. Here’s to Arquette and her commitment to celebrating real, complex, flawed, and imperfect women. Definitely worth a collective fist pump.
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