The Bo Show

Meeting Patricia Arquette - MEDIUM

I was lucky enough to attend Patricia Arquette: Medium Cool at NYC’s The Paley Center. Arquette was there to discuss her directorial debut on Medium, the popular NBC series based on the real life psychic, Allison Dubois. The series just kicked off it’s fifth season on the peacock network.

Arquette’s episode centered around a story line where her character, psychic, wife and mother of three, tries to solve a crime while she finds herself building a homemade bomb. The episode aired this past Monday, and also featured her real-life son who she cast to play a young boy, who is emotionally abused and trying to please his war veteran father. Unfortunately, in his pursuit of his father’s approval, he finds himself an accomplice to an explosion which claimed the lives of 17 people… that’s where Arquette’s character comes into the picture.

After watching the episode and having an open discussion with Arquette, I realized two things. First, the room was made up of women and gay men. Second, during the question and answer session, one gay man brought up an interesting (yet very common) theme… strong women roles.

This made me think of the many women who have become icons to the gay community, Madonna, Cher, Shirley MacLain… etc. I can’t help but think gay men are addicted to strong women. This man asked Arquette why she chose this role. She mentioned how the material was strong, and how each episode is very well written.

But, what took me by surprise was how she decided to play the role of Allison Dubois as weaker than the actual woman. Funny, we consider the television character to be strong, but the real-life Allison Dubois is apparently even stronger and more confident than how she is portrayed on Medium.

Arquette says the real-life Dubois is a take-no-prisoners kind of woman. She said Dubois is the kind of woman who will grab you and say, “lets grab a drink,” right after meeting you. Arquette mentioned she wanted the character to be more accessible and show some doubt.

I thought this was interesting, considering finding a strong woman role is Hollywood may not be the easiest thing for an actress. But, when I reviewed this actress’s work, I realized she is known for playing strong woman roles… if you don’t believe me, check out True Romance, and my favorite A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

By the end of the evening, as we were leaving the Center, I had a chance to meet up with Arquette. She was a very kind and generous woman. She clearly has a way of accepting men for who they are. Her brother/sister is Alexis Arquette. I’m not sure if Alexis is pre-op or post-op, but all the same she is an amazing woman who clearly has no problem being her new self.

I’m am now an even bigger fan of Patricia Arquette!