PREVAIL Podcast Season Premiere: We're Not Going Back

A conversation with the actor, director, and activist Rosanna Arquette

Rosanna Arquette, my guest on today’s PREVAIL podcast, needs no introduction. She comes from a remarkable acting family. She’s been a working actor since she was a teenager, and in the public consciousness since 1985, when she appeared in Silverado, After Hours, and Desperately Seeking Susan. All told, she’s been in over 70 films, including The Linguini Incident with David Bowie, David Cronenberg’s Crash, and Pulp Fiction. She is, as I tell her in our conversation, an actor who always enhances whatever project she’s working on. Every film or TV show is improved by her participation; she is always additive, always a name in the credits we delight in seeing.

Arquette’s film career suffered when she chose to take on, and help take down, the odious Harvey Weinstein—a selfless decision that required enormous courage (and one she’s still paying the price for). But that’s who she is. If she was precocious as an actor, she has been an activist even longer, as I found out during our chat. When she was five or six, she met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a peace march in Chicago. She tells me:

My mother was an activist putting together the peace marches that were happening, you know, against the Vietnam War. And so there’d be love-ins and peace-ins in Lincoln Park. And we had this really groovy apartment across the street from Lincoln Park. And my mom was very excited that Martin Luther King was going to show up to one of these events. And so she ended up being in a back—I’ve told this story—but I was in the back of a truck with him. . .And my mother had painted on my bare chest, STOP THE WAR, KILL NO MORE—on my bare chest. And there’s all the kids, you know, in the back [with] the great Martin Luther King. And I just remember him looking over to me and saying, “What’s your name?” He’s asking everybody’s name. And I told him my name, and he goes, “Will someone put a shirt on that little girl?”

The experience of that peace march, and other similar events, activated her. “I do remember the feeling of ‘Stop the war, kill the war,’” she recalls. “Like I could feel…I can remember the feeling of that. You know, it was electric.”

Arquette has long been an outspoken proponent of women’s rights—that is the subject of her documentary Searching for Debra Winger—and a champion of LGBTQ rights. She is involved in The Alexis Project, an LA-based clinic named for her late sister Alexis that provides gender-affirming care and other resources for the LGBTQIA2S community.

Needless to say, she is a staunch supporter of Kamala Harris, and has been for years. “I love her. I’ve always loved her. I think we need a woman president,” Arquette tells me. “And she’s a powerhouse and she knows her stuff. And I think she’s going to be a lot tougher than everybody actually—you know, she’s tough. So don’t fuck with her. And I’m excited.”

And I’m excited to share my conversation with Rosanna Arquette. I have enormous respect for her as an actor, an artist, an activist, and a human being, so it was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with her.

Enjoy the conversation!

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In this far-ranging discussion, Greg Olear talks to the actress, director, podcast host, and activist Rosanna Arquette about: Kamala Harris, the DNC, and the new hope around U.S. politics; what to expect at the presidential debate; the deal with RFK Jr.; the time she met Trump; the time she met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Alexis Project and the fundraiser happening in LA this week; Me Too and opportunities for women in Hollywood; her acting career, from “Desperately Seeking Susan” to “Pulp Fiction” to “The L-Word” to “Succubus”; her directing style; and much, much more. Plus: nothing left to lose!

Rosanna on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/rosannaarquette/

Rosanna’s website:
https://www.rosannaarquette.com/about

The Alexis Project:
https://www.alexisproject.org/

The fundraiser:
https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/vip-community-mental-health-center-inc/the-alexis-project-copy-1

Radical Musings:

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Photo credit: Rosanna Arquette, from her website.