Remember I had written about Jennifer Beals’ role for WIGS? I continue to be impressed with its lineup. Canadian Catherine O’Hara recently tackled an actress-turned-saintly role in a two-episode series penned by Mitch Albom.
In the series launching today, Rochelle, Rosanna Arquette tackles the role of a woman who hires an escort to break her ex-husband’s heart. The 3-episode series is written by Scott Turow and directed by Rose Troche (The L Word, The Safety of Objects).
In a phone interview, Arquette shared her reason for doing the webisodes: The quality of the writing. “Well I’m a huge fan of Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia as directors and then Scott Turow had written this wonderful piece…. It was so wonderful because it was so beautifully and impeccably written. When you have lousy dialogue you can’t remember it.”
She brought her own experience to the role. Rochelle has been betrayed and left for a younger woman; Arquette of course is no stranger to divorce, and she says she brought up those sense-memories to prepare for the role. “That’s the great thing about acting – being there to open up other people in thinking differently or recognizing something in themselves.”
But acting’s taken a back seat overall for Arquette lately. She has a daughter in high school on the east coast, and can’t commit to shooting in L.A. “You can’t leave a newborn and you can’t leave a teenager,” she comments, although she then muses that she sees the empty nest on the horizon.
When I ask her what kinds of roles she’d like to tackle, she answers “I would love to actually play where I’m at in life – I am officially middle aged…. I was looking at Jane Fonda as inspiration – you know, Prime Time [Fonda’s guide to living and aging well] – you don’t have to go down the road of hell, but you can be vivacious and powerful like she is.”
Or like Arquette. Check out the series; it launches today (Monday August 27).
