Exclusive interview with Oscar-winning actress, Patricia Arquette

After her win at the Oscars for Best Supporting Actress in Boyhood, Patricia Arquette delivered an acceptance speech that got everyone in the audience – Meryl Streep included – and on social media riled up. “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America. It’s time for all the women in America and all the men who love women and all the gay people and all the people of colour that we’ve fought for, to fight for us now,” was what she rallied and people picked it apart word by word.

Many claimed that her statements suggest all women are white and straight. The way we see it though, her words simply serve to remind that just as much as racism and LGBT rights are not being accounted for, women’s rights aren’t all there either. It’s not so much about pitting whose rights are more important but about stating that wage equality between genders is also just as much a pressing issue. No harm in highlighting that.

Nonetheless, Arquette’s win for Boyhood was more than well deserved and now we’ve got another medium to see her incredible talent on. Playing Avery Ryan, the cyberpsychologist on the upcoming new series, CSI: Cyber, Arquette will be portraying a strong female lead in law enforcement. That, we believe is something television really lacks right now as well. Because how many times have you seen shows where the strong lead who is the clever investigator, the exceptionally badass lawyer or the acclaimed doctor, is a man? We’ll bet, that out of all the shows, it’ll be far too many times than necessary.

Which is why we’re glad to see Patricia Arquette front the new series as she hunts down cyber criminals in this increasingly technologically advanced world. To find out more about her new role in CSI: Cyber, we caught up with Arquette as she also shared her experience working on Boyhood and of course in Hollywood.

Marie France Asia: Could you tell us a little bit more about your role in CSI: Cyber?

Patricia Arquette: Well, I play a woman named Avery Ryans and she’s a cyberpsychologist. Her speciality is profiling people by the psychological choices that they make but she also has a speciality in the cyber world. It’s really about profiling cyber criminals and trying to guess what choices they might next make when they’re committing a crime.

MFA: How important is it for women to be seen in such powerful roles on television?

P.A.: I think it’s great. It’s very exciting to be the first female lead in CSI, especially with it being a global franchise. Especially when I’m 46 years old and to be a women in the position of power in law enforcement – that’s still rare to see in entertainment television.

MFA: Are you personally keen on the works of a cyberpsychologist?

P.A.: Well, no. I’m not really a cyber person myself. But that is what’s so great about acting – you get to play characters who are different from yourself, even having different values is interesting to play. This woman, Avery Ryans, has a different skill set and I don’t personally possess any of her strengths.

MFA: Do you think you’ll be winning an Emmy with your role in CSI: Cyber?

P.A.: I don’t know. Television is very exciting and there’s a lot of great work. I think CSI: Cyber will be very entertaining for people but I don’t think us as actors have to be so award oriented.

MFA: Did you sign on to the role of Olivia Evans in Boyhood right away?

P.A.: Yes I did. When Richard [Linklater] told me about it, I thought it was a beautiful idea and I’ve always wanted to work with him as a filmmaker.

MFA: What was the experience like filming over 12 years in Boyhood?

P.A.: It was a very beautiful experience. It was more about the process of making it than the outcome or anything else really. It was like a little private project that we were working on, like being at acting camp or something.

MFA: Do walk us through an ordinary day on the set of Boyhood.

P.A.: Several months before, Richard would call us and tell us his ideas and the scenes that we would be in. Then he would send us the written scenes and we would talk about that, the subject matter and the stories from our lives and our friend’s lives. After that, I would fly in and we would do a wardrobe fitting with a bunch of clothes that they got from Goodwill (thrift store). After which we would talk about the scenes, improvise on it and Richard may re-write some scenes. Then we proceed to learn the lines on that night and shoot them the next day.

MFA: How was the experience of working on television different from film? Which do you prefer?

P.A.: They’re very different. In a movie, your director really makes all the choices to the way the film looks or feels and the tone of the whole movie. Whereas on television, it’s really the show’s creators who make a lot of those decisions, from the angle to the pacing of the characters, where they’re going next and so on. So it’s a very different relationship. You have to move very quickly on television but then again we also had to move quickly on Boyhood and for small budget movies.

MFA: What is your take on the young Hollywood actors of today?

P.A.: I think they’re doing really great work. They are seemingly more comfortable with their anger. For me I grew up in a generation where women were not ever supposed to be angry. I feel like these young women feel very emotionally open and free and it’s exciting to see them work. It’s great to see a young woman be comfortable with their emotions.

MFA: What have you learned from your relationships over the years?

P.A.: Oh my god, I’ve learned so many things. I think little by little, my relationships have revealed to me my true self, like aspects of myself that I was not previously aware of.

CSI: Cyber airs on Thursdays at 10pm first and exclusively on AXN

Tarandip Kaur