Seeing Is Believing
Patricia Arquette finally hits her stride playing a psychic on NBC's hit show "Medium."
sister Rosanna Arquette, who showed
her how to behave in front of and
behind the camera.
Three years later she was making a liv-
ing at the craft, appearing in such fea-
ture films as Pretty Smart A Nightmare
on Elm Street 3: Dream Wan fors and
Time Out in relatively rapid succession.
Genuine movie stardom has eluded
her so far, despite strong appearances in
dozens of film projects including True
EIRIK KNUTZEN
Copley News Service
A
fter giving birth on Feb. 20,
2003, to her daughter Harlow
by actor Thomas Jane, Patricia
Arquette took a couple of years off to
play a mother — typecast again. The
months flew past with blinding speed,
but she did have time to read a movie
script now and then.
And she hated them all. Some stories
were too violent. Some featured gratu-
itous sex and nude scenes. Some were
boring beyond belief. Many were plain
stupid.
On the brink of giving up, Arquerte
finally instructed her agents to look for
TV properties. In a flash, the pilot script
for Medium hit her desk with a thud.
"Before I even read it, Hiked the idea
that the show was intended for network
television, which means that anyone
who can afford a TV set can have free
entertainment," said Arquette, 36, born
in Chicago and raised on a commune in
Arlington, Va., who learned the acting
trade along with most of her four sib-
lings.
"Reading it, I thought, 'Oh, God, this
is so well written!"'
Created by writer-director-producer
Glenn Gordon Caron (Moonlighting),
Medium is inspired by Allison DuBois, a
34-year-old Arizona "research medium"
happily married to an aerospace engi-
neer and the mother of their three
young daughters who was working in a
district attorney's office and going to law
school when she discovered the paranor-
mal abilities she'd experienced since
childhood enabled her to profile perpe-
trators of crime.
Arquette — who dialed psychic hot-
lines as a lark but doesn't anymore —
portrays DuBois in name and spirit as
she works with the district attorney's
office and various law enforcement
agencies on cases ranging from missing
persons to serial murders.
With shades of Profiler, she sees dead
people everywhere and chats with some
of them, particularly victims and wit-
nesses of serious crime.
"I spent quite a bit of time with
Allison, who is a consultant for the show
but has stepped back from work all over
the country in order to spend more time
with her family," said Arquette. "But she
Patricia Arquette in "Medium"
still has a hand in issues from capital
cases to jury selections. And found time
to write a book, Don't Kiss Them
Goodbye (Fireside; $23)."
Besides the whodunit aspect of the
show, Arquette remains intrigued with
her character's family dynamics and how
closely her screen marriage parallels that
of the three-dimensional DuBois.
"Allison's relationship with her hus-
band, Joe (played by Jake Weber), is
very deep and complex, while they enjoy
each other's sense of humor. They're
great partners and extremely close
friends. It's all out there."
The only major departure from the
real DuBois' persona is the aura of peace
and confidence she now surrounds her-
self with — most likely due to a combi-
nation of experience and maturity.
"She seems to have constructed some
type of survival mechanism in her mind
that makes her much more comfortable
with herself," Arquette explained.
"There had to be times near burnout.
For dramatic purposes, I wanted to play
her at an earlier time in her life, when
she wasn't that comfortable with herself
and her 'gift.'
"It is a psychic ability that goes all the
way back to when she was 6 years old
and was able to communicate with her
deceased great-grandfather. Along the
way, there must have been scary
moments dealing with intense images
from the past and future."
Family History
Although the granddaughter of late
comedic actor Cliff Arquette (best
known for his rustic TV character
Charlie Weaver), Patricia Arquette still
isn't entirely sure why she got into the
acting game at the age of 15, when she
moved in with Hollywood-based older
Romance, Ed Wood, Bringing Out the
Dead and Deeper Than Deep.
She also learned a great deal about
life's vagaries delivering her son, Enzo,
now 15, by her previous relationship
with Paul Rossi, and during her six-year
marriage to actor Nicolas Cage (1995-
2001).
The gutsy actress also observed success
up close when her brother David
Arquette married Friends millionairess
Courteney Cox and staunchly supports
the activities of her other brother, Alexis
Arquette, a man also known as a drag
performer at alternative venues.
All the Arquette siblings are the chil-
dren of a Jewish mother and a
Christian-born father who converted to
a "New Age" form of Islam, according
to the Web site www.jewhoo.com .
Growing up, the Arquettes (whose
patriarch, Cliff, had a Jewish father) cel-
ebrated some Jewish holidays. Today,
Rosanna, who is married to a Jewish
man, identifies most closely with her
Jewish identity, reports Jewhoo. When
David Arquette married Cox in an
Episcopalian church, he paid tribute to
his Jewish heritage and his late mother
as he broke the traditional glass at the
end of the ceremony.
In interviews, Patricia Arquette recalls
celebrating Jewish holidays now and
then and says she is very spiritual,
although she does not seem to identify
with any one faith, says Jewhoo. Her
son, however, had a bris, a religious
Jewish circumcision.
The family's unusual background has
kept them close. In fact, "in terms of
acting," says Patricia Arquette, "the only
thing I'd love to try now is working with
my sister and brothers in a single proj-
ect. We have paired up occasionally, but
not all at once.
"It would be great because they're all
incredibly cool, talented people. We'd be
very close even if we weren't related." ❑
rig
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3/24
2005
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