Rosanna Arquette has a supporting role in The Moment, the quasi-biographical film starring Charli XCX. It’s (sort of) about Charli putting together her Brat tour, and Alexander Skarsgard also has a major role. To promote the film, Rosanna chatted with the Times of London about her 40-plus years in and out of the industry. She speaks with a great deal of honesty about Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and his victims and Quentin Tarantino. She had a small role in Pulp Fiction, and while she’s proud of that film, she has mixed feelings about it these days. Some highlights from the Times:
Rosanna had no idea who Charli XCX was before Charli wrote to her. “I wasn’t really in the Brat summer vibe, you know? But I recognised her songs. And it was a lovely letter, naming all these movies I’m in that she liked. Charli’s a big film buff.”
Charli reminded her of Madonna: “I saw it happen with Madonna — she exploded while we were making Desperately Seeking Susan….Suddenly, in the middle of shooting, Madonna was the It girl. I remember we went to a Prince concert together and we were watching this crowd coming towards us. Really it was for her and I became the bodyguard, like, ‘Leave her alone!’ She went into a panic attack. I think she’d been on the cover of Rolling Stone. She’d done the MTV awards. And so it felt like this was exactly the moment it happened — this huge worldwide success.”
She might have ruined her big break: “I wasn’t prepared for it, and I probably didn’t handle things. I could have done things differently.” It’s not that she was a party girl. “I’ve been around a lot of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, and never got into it because I saw so many people self-destruct. The whole coke scene was not my vibe.”
What she thinks of Pulp Fiction: “It’s iconic, a great film on a lot of levels. But personally I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that he [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.” The other reason Pulp Fiction leaves a sour taste is that she was denied a percentage of the box office. “I’m the only person who didn’t get a back end [a share of the takings]. Everybody made money except me.” She doesn’t blame Tarantino (“Quentin wanted me in that movie”) but the film’s producer, Harvey Weinstein.
On Harvey Weinstein: In the early 1990s Arquette went for a meeting with him about a script. When she got to the Beverly Hills Hotel she was told to go up to Weinstein’s room, where he was waiting in a bathrobe and tried to put her hand on his penis. “I was fortunate because I was not raped. But, boy, was it going there and I paid a price for saying no, and later I paid a price for telling the truth.”
Whether there are still men like Weinstein in the industry: “Oh my God, are you serious? They hide behind rocks, but of course.” At the height of the MeToo movement she became friendly with Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein. “I had many conversations with the Epstein women. Those women are warriors right now, and we need to protect them. I knew Virginia. I don’t think she killed herself.” She doesn’t think it was suicide? “I do not.”
After four divorces, she doesn’t even date nowadays: “I’m not in a relationship and that’s been really good for me, to not even date.” Would she marry again? “Oh God, no! Catch up with Elizabeth Taylor? I believe in love and marriage, but I don’t see myself doing that again. I have not had the best luck in my choices.”
“…I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that he [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.” That’s one of the big reasons why Tarantino’s ‘90s films have aged poorly, especially Pulp Fiction. It can still be an iconic, groundbreaking film which changed Hollywood and shifted the culture… and it’s also deeply problematic and some of the dialogue is like nails on a chalkboard. Now, there’s some debate about whether Tarantino has really been given a “pass” – while Samuel L. Jackson always defends QT’s writing and use of the word, other Black artists have spoken out over the years about it, including Spike Lee.
What Rosanna says about the Epstein survivors is interesting – I didn’t know that she sought them out and became friends with them, including the late Virginia Giuffre. Given what we know about the wide, international Epstein Class of powerful men, I also think Virginia’s death deserves another examination.
PS… Tarantino actually responded to Rosanna’s comments which I covered separately.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
