Patricia Arquette has an interview with People Magazine to promote her new CBS show, CSI: Cyber. The show premiered last night and is getting middling reviews. I’m not a fan of true crime shows or any of the CSIs but it’s got James Van Der Beek and Fat Neil from Community (that’s what they called him) in it. It looks like a fun ensemble cast in the same vein as NCIS. I’ve seen the first 10 minutes of the show and Patricia plays it very straight and even, she has that monotone voice that makes it sound like she’s either in control or incredibly bored.
To People, Patricia gave some decent quotes about body image and about working in Hollywood. She wasn’t controversial at all like when she talked feminism backstage at the Oscars. She made some good points:
On body image
When I was a teenager, someone told me, ‘If you fix your teeth, you could be in Playboy.’ I said ‘Why would I want to be in Playboy?’ I didn’t want to look perfect. I didn’t want to have to be some girl in a magazine. I didn’t want to have to change myself to be attractive.I’ve had so many of these conversations in my life … what I look like on film, what I don’t look like on film. What are we supposed to look like? Men are not having these conversations.
It’s like we’re trapped in wet wool or something. I just want to be free of it so we can move to the next level as equals. Not that I don’t love being a woman, not that I don’t love the differences between men and women. I just mean, as an actor – why is this a conversation? Why is aging a conversation? It’s a one-sided conversation because it’s only ever had by women.
On how she relates to her Boyhood character
When you’re a kid you think, ‘I can’t wait to have my own independence, to have my own apartment, but it can be really rough being an adult, and sometimes it just feels relentless.She’s tried to shelter her kids Enzo, 26, and Harlow, 12, from the industry
I don’t watch my movies at home, I don’t talk about my work with my kids, there’s not any posters of myself up on the wall.
[From People Magazine, online and print edition, March 16, 2015]
On People’s website, Arquette has some additional quotes about keeping kids safe online. She sounds a little out of touch, and I can tell that this show is going to sensationalize the Internet to an unrealistic degree. That’s what these shows do though. Arquette said “I have this line in one of the episodes where I say, ‘No adult would ever let their child go outside and play with a 45-year-old stranger, but in these online gaming worlds they’re doing it every day.’ It’s the truth.” Yes it’s the truth, but those two situations are not equivocal in any way, and if you teach your child to be careful and anonymous online it’s a much different thing.
About Arquette’s teeth, I honestly barely noticed them. She reminds me a little of Kirsten Dunst in that way. Dunst has said that she loves her “snaggle fangs” (her words) and that she’s not going to change them. Arquette places it in the larger context of people nitpicking women for minor perceived flaws and for aging. As long as she’s not calling out other groups for not supporting feminist causes, I agree with her.
Update: After this story was published, I found an interview that Arquette did with Buzzfeed in which she attempted to clarify her backstage Oscar comments. It’s a very extensive interview. Buzzfeed also asked her about the character she played on Medium, Allison Dubois, getting wasted and making a fool of herself on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Arquette defended her somewhat, and said that Dubois didn’t “have very much experience on camera. And it’s never a great idea to be drunk on camera.” As for what she said backstage at the Oscars, Arquette said that was “very misconstrued.” Here’s how she addressed it:
What I meant was the most adversely affected are women of color, and every single lesbian and transgender woman. So what I was saying is all of these bases should rally around women. I don’t know why everybody just accepts that women should take this; that women should have to be paid less for the exact same job. I’m not talking about charity. I’m talking about working women doing the exact same job. I mean, I’m sorry people took it that way. We have these incredible activists in all of these areas who have made and fought for significant change. Why don’t they come forward and support women? Half of their base is women — why aren’t they fighting for that?
photo credit: Getty Images
What’s wrong with her teeth? They seem nice to me.
I have nice teeth, squeaky clean and white but if I had lots of money first thing i would do would be replacing all my teeth for some blinding white veneers.
Don’t jump at me.. but I do judge people based on their teeth. I think they’re the most important feature in my book. Followed by the hands and then the eyes.
Me too honestly. I appreciate folks like her and Buscemi, however, I think it’s easier to have a f u attitude and embrace one’s “flaws” when they are born into that industry, ex. Lena Dunham.
Well, to me the veneers just don’t look good. They often seem so fake and too big. Clean healthy natural teeth that won’t glow in black light is the best look to me.
I find perfectly-formed, blue-white teeth unappealing. For me, there is no beauty in that unrealistic type of perfection.
Yes, dentures! All even like baby teeth, yuck!
but she went with boob job.weird. i would go with teeth
Just don’t get the kind that look like Chiclets.
I will never replace my teeth I already know this. But i’d love to see what they look like on me.
I wouldn’t want super white teeth.. but it would be nice to have a perfect smile.
Neon white even teeth seem to be an American thing, no? Most American actors seem to have perfect teeth, Europeans not so much.
I have very healthy, strong teeth, but they are not even ( and I like them that way, I think they give me character), but no matter what I do, they have a bit of an yellow.ish tone to them. And my oral hygiene is immaculate and I don’t smoke.
I think it’s an American actor thing. You see a lot of gnarly teeth here in the general publuc.
Yeah, it’s only on American websites I see people commenting about people’s teeth, both good and bad. Here I never see or hear that, normal healthy teeth are considered fine and nobody cares at all. If anything, teeth that are obviously fake or beached are made fun of. Where I live you won’t even find a respectable dentist who would ever consider placing veneers on healthy teeth.
My dentist told me perfect celebrity teeth were not a natural thing. I take excellent care of mine, but taking medicines so long and osteoporosis is making them weak. I’m an American, and I’m happy still having them all, but I never judge a person because these things happen
@ Charlie: do you have thin/translucent skin where you have a pink undertone or flush easy? (Like most redheads, some blondes.) The natural colour of the dentin under the enamel is yellow. Enamel comes from similar cells as skin, so people with translucent skin tend to have translucent enamel … so more of the yellowish dentin colour shows through.
I know a few “regular” Americans who whiten their teeth beyond belief and they’re not actors or models. The first time one acquaintance did it I was taken aback because it was evening and the lighting was low and they practically glowed in the dark, so unnatural. I noticed dentists offer professional whitening more and more, I’m sure it’s easy money for them.
Paola, are you serious? You sound shallow as all hell. Ugh. I’d be a nervous wreck around you. You need to rethink yourself.
idk if this is what Paola meant or not, but for me, I do the same thing.
Its not a matter of aesthetic perfection, for me, its a matter of hygiene. If your teeth have CAKED ON layers of yellow, and food between your teeth, than yes- I judge you. If your fingernails have black crusty crud underneath them, yes- I judge you. If your wearing sandals and I can see toe jam and your toenails are an inch long- guess what…..I’m judging you. NONE of those things require money to take care of.
ahah!
So.. I am shallow because I think personal hygiene is important.. but you’re so deep that you think I’m shallow judging me from the few lines I wrote on something that is specifically physical.
We’re talking about teeth not education or personal knowledge.
Get a grip. We all keep away from stinky people on the bus, from the ones with a bad breath and from those who basically don’t take care of themselves.
If you’re denying that you’re being a hypocrite.
Aren’t chalk white teeth a sign of poor hygiene tho? Considering the person probably hasn’t been taking very good care of their teeth or they wouldn’t need to be bleaching them or getting veneers?
@platypus
I don’t think it’s because of bad hygiene people get veneers. I agree with you on some people like Lindsay Lohan but some people do because they don’t like the shape of their original teeth like let’s say.. catherine Zeta Jones. She had these really tiny teeth and lots of gums. Now she has a wide smile more suitable to her gorgeous face. Or Ben Affleck. Or Zack Efron. Or Cheryl Cole. She had some really crooked teeth in different sizes, nothing she could fix with braces I guess.
And don’t forget that veneers need maintenance and daily hygiene routine. Probably even more than real teeth
The only person I know who now bleaches her teeth admitted she only brushes them once a week tops because she hates the taste of toothpaste, so she bleaches them and chews gum all day to conceal her poor hygiene. Dentists here won’t touch your teeth as far as veneers etc. go unless your enamel is already damaged beyond repair (cause veeners do that). Maybe it’s a totally normal thing in the US, I was just going with what the posters above said when they wrote that it’s not.
Come on man. Paola was just being honest and saying what she would change for HERSELF. As far as her noticing teeth first, you’ve never met someone and gotten a first impression based on their looks? It’s almost unavoidable, don’t you think?
This forum has been a bit harsh lately.
ita paola, i can’t with jacked up teeth. imo her teeth arent cute but it has no impact on my life.
I don’t think they look too bad, either. Maybe not veneer straight and white, but not horrifically mangled, either.
Then again, I think people push overly straight teeth as the norm, while ignoring how unnatural and problematic the dental care can be. I have naturally straight teeth (most people assume I’ve had braces or professional work done), and it kind of sucks sometimes? All those neatly filed teeth also means that the spaces between them are extremely tight, which actually leads to a higher rate of cavity formation.
Good for her, perfect white teeth all the same shape and size are boring. No character.
And I agree: why are we even having this conversation? It would tick me off if it were about me. I’m way more than my teeth or face or boobs. So is she. So are all of us.
I love seeing celebs with imperfect teeth. I have a gap in my teeth, so it’s refreshing to see stars who don’t have the uniform veneers.
I agree with her that women get [doodoo] with regard to how they look on film and that it’s, mildly speaking, not a good thing. However, I don’t think the conversation’s exclusive to women anymore – think that men are starting to get judged with regard to how they look/body image, too (obviously not to the extent that women do yet).
The part about having posters of herself on the walls at home was funny – people actually do that?
I expect Kanye West to have a photograph wallpaper of himself on every wall of his mansion.
I;m sure Gaga has a shrine with her pics.
And Beyonce has a safe or whatever where she archives everything – pics, videos, interviews.
I have always thought her teeth were cute. She has a lovely smile.
Me, too. And I know I’m in the minority but I like Jessica Pare from Mad Men’s teeth, too. There’s a lot to be said for not succumbing to the cookie cutter look.
I’ll be honest – I find Jessica Pare’s distracting, and if I were her, I probably would have gotten them fixed. But they are her teeth and she is perfectly happy with them, and I support that.
They are cute and give her face character. She would look like just any other cookie cutter cute blonde if she had straight teeth. Good on her for not bowing to pressure and staying true to herself.
Lots of men in Hollywood have fixed their teeth too, though. Tom Cruise and Ben Affleck come to mind. I don’t think there was anything wrong with Ben’s before teeth.
Just yesterday I picked up some US fashion mag at the doctor’s surgery. I knew it was from the US because the models are always so photoshopped they look like blow-up aliens with weird blue-white glowing teeth. My first thought was how must it feel to grow up in an environment where these images surround you. It is not that these images of beauty are unattainable by 99% of the population (the Australian fashion/celebrity mags are the same)… these people are borderline no longer even human.
I think her teeth are great. Really nice. I find Jessica Simpson’s teeth terrifying.
Oh please, when I played World of Warcraft, some of the nicest people I met were in their forties or older couples playing the game. Except I knew better not to give out my home address, my real name (I have a very unique name), or post pictures of myself and reported the creeps that I found. And guess what? The non-creep ones–we’re still friends! They even came to my wedding!
If you teach your kids what to post and what not to post online, it will pay dividends and more importantly, keep them safe.
Her attitude is unusual – and refreshing – for Hollywood, home of the perfect smile.
As far as veneers are concerned, I can’t understand why anyone would get them outside the context of a chipped or otherwise damaged tooth (wouldn’t you get braces if you wanted to get something “fixed”) — yes, I’m talking to you Duchess Kate. She is a perfect example of obvious, fake looking veneers and someone who got them for reasons of vanity — what was wrong with her teeth before? With veneers, you are basically filing down the original healthy tooth and slipping on something akin to a fingernail to achieve this (fake looking) perfect smile.
Dear God, is anyone else getting sick of all these cop shows on TV these days….every other show is a cop show. Don’t get me wrong, I love my true crime, like Dateline, 48 Hours, etc. But, I miss having some good comedy shows! I guess a comedy show is much harder to make than a cop show…
I LIVE for 48 Hours and Dateline. Those two shows should never be lumped in with the rest of that crap.
Cops shows? Get rid of all the non-reality shows!
As someone who does not have perfect teeth, I love it when people are not ashamed of theirs. Years of smiling with my mouth closed, covered by a hand,or not even smiling at all because of the cruel things people say. And I’m not talking terrible Halloween teeth here, but anything other than “movie star quality” is treated as a disfigurement.
Now that I’m older, I figure they’re clean, they’re white and I won’t be ashamed of being born with this jaw and these teeth and for not spending thousands of dollars on orthodontics so a stranger can give me a thumbs up on my dental appearance.
So, I don’t judge on teeth. Eye goo is a totally other matter.
I have really good teeth but every guy I’ve ever loved had irregular teeth, whether a chipped tooth or shorter teeth, spaces, whatever.
I like irregular teeth-I think it’s cute.
I have one slightly snaggled tooth and its my fave! Like my signature – unique , quirky and my character alone.
Patricia did a movie when she was very young called wild flower. I saw it when i was a teen and have never forgot it. Made A big impact on me. If you’ve never seen it you should. She deserved an Oscar.
YES!!! She was AMAZING in that, wasn’t she? I was blown away too and couldn’t believe nobody ever heard of it.
(p.s. came back to edit: I forgot that Diane Keaton directed it)
i adore patricia arquette.
and i’ve always believed that she is very beautiful.
she has a quiet allure and her personality is just so introspective and thoughtful.
given the celebrity family she grew up in, she seems to be well adjusted with her feet firmly grounded in reality.
and her talents as an actress are impressive.
i’m so HAPPY that she won an oscar!
and i always got what she meant backstage at the oscars…
that those who have rallied for all minorities should bring that same power to rallying for women and equal pay…that’s it.
anyone who thought she meant otherwise was foolish and the press spinned it.
i may watch her show…i haven’t gotten caught up in on the other similarly themed ones at all, but her show will be worth a watch.
Good for her! I like a little quirk with teeth, like Ricky Gervais’ fangs. And unfixed noses. Cookie cutter is boring.
My canines are pointy and I love them. (Teeth, not dogs) ANd I appreciate what Arquette tries to do. I know that she made some statements that seemed like she left out groups when she talked about rights for women, but I will never believe that this woman’s heart is not in the right place.
Anna Pacquin is another example. I think her face is attractive and distinctive because of the gap in her teeth.
Lauren Hutton too. It set her apart from other models.
Lauren Hutton — what an original life! And STILL a beauty!
Ali McGraw – overlap.
I’ve never had perfect teeth or a perfect bite. My bite was so messed up and my teeth so crooked that I was practically best friends with my dentist and orthodontist from a young age. Now that I’m older my bite has been corrected as much as possible without surgery and my teeth are fairly straight but not perfect. I really don’t care as it adds to my unique look. When I was younger I also had people tell me “If you fixed the bump on your nose you could be in Playboy.” I think I was 19 or 20 at the time. I had the same reaction that Patricia did. It seemed rather a back handed compliment and sort of offensive. FYI, I’ve never had plastic surgery but I’ve thought about it over the years. I think about it less and less as I get older. Anyway, I like Patricia’s look. And I do tend to find people with little quirks more attractive.
It is a backhanded compliment, to ever tell a girl, “hey if you fix this flaw… I like to see you naked!”. Cause that is exactly what I take that Playboy comment to mean. It is not a compliment, to ever tell a girl that being in naked Playboy, is the ultimate compliment about your looks.
I too had a close personal relationship with the orthodontist and a set of braces. But I like having straight teeth. I like have a great smile. But I am not a fan of caps/veneers. I am freaked out by having my own teeth filed on, for vanity reasons.
It is one thing to have to have a cavity/broke tooth repaired. Versus having your healthy natural teeth filed down for caps, veneers and such.
But I am a big believer in braces. 🙂
She’s fantastic. What she said at the Oscars was fantastic. Now I want to watch her show to support her.
It was also a total lie.
Arquette’s smile is gorgeous!
I think her crooked teeth are an asset. They are uniquely arranged, beautifully. Many times veneers can look great (Zeta-Jones), and sometimes natural teeth can look bad, but, in Arquette’s case, I don’t think one can improve the alluring arrangement she was born with.
I loved Cher’s original teeth, too, and think that her uniform replacements look really weird/bad.
Imperfect teeth give a person character. Not everyone finds the Bucky the Beaver look attractive. That being said veneers are great for people who have been cursed with awful teeth.
I used to have a f* u attitude about my teeth until my thirties when I started to realize I avoided smiling because I was aware my front teeth were crooked. Some people told me it was a charming feature but it started bugging me when I saw my pictures. I finally surrendered and used braces and now I feel so much better and proud of my smile. I think it looks cute when you are younger but as you grow older not so much. I don´t judge her but I do think she would look better if fixed. She is very pretty and I learned sometimes you just want to be stubborn about something for the sake of being against everybody. Just saying
I had a snaggle tooth and had it fixed. BIGGEST mistake I ever made. I realize I’m fortunate to say that but I mean it nonetheless. Think very hard before changing the things that make you remarkable.