Rosanna Lisa Arquette is an American actress, film director, and film producer. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV filmThe Executioner's Song, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan. Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue, Pulp Fiction, and Crash. She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger, and starred from 2006 to 2007 in the ABC sitcom What About Brian?
Early life
Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi", an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, a film actor, screenwriter, and producer. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette. Her mother was Jewish, from a family that emigrated from Poland and Russia. Her father, whose family's surname was originally "Arcouet", was of part-French Canadian descent. Her father was a convert from Catholicism to Islam; through him, Arquette is distantly related to explorer Meriwether Lewis. Her siblings, Richmond, Patricia, Alexis, and David, all became actors as well.
Career
Arquette has appeared in both television and screen films. She earned an Emmy Award nomination for the TV film The Executioner's Song. However, she was unhappy with the film's nude scene, remarking in an interview that the idea of the general public seeing her naked made her feel uncomfortable and exploited, and that most of the offers she had received since demanded that she similarly expose herself. Her first starring role was in John Sayles's film, Baby It's You, highly regarded by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers but not widely distributed. She starred in Desperately Seeking Susan alongside pop singer Madonna, for which Arquette won a British Academy Film Awards for her supporting role. Though many felt that while Arquette's performance was central to the movie's success, Madonna made the movie into a mainstream hit. She had negotiated a deal where she would provide a song for the movie. "Into The Groove" became a huge hit for Madonna, as did the movie itself. In an interview at the time, Arquette said "The two questions I hate the most are 'What was it like working with Madonna?' and 'Are you the Rosanna in the song "Rosanna"?'" Following the commercial and critical success of Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado, the limited success of the Martin Scorsese film After Hours and the commercial flop 8 Million Ways to Die, also a critical failure, she quit Hollywood to work in Europe, acting in Luc Besson's The Big Blue. Director Martin Scorsese then offered her a part in his segment of New York Stories. Arquette's other movies of note are Pulp Fiction and the David Cronenberg film Crash and the Australian film Wendy Cracked a Walnut. In 1990, she appeared on the cover and in a nude pictorial in Playboys September issue, although she said it was without her prior knowledge or consent. In the 1990s, her career began to stall. Arquette alleges, that powerhouse film producer Harvey Weinsteinsexually harassed her, threatened her because of her refusal to enter his hotel room, and subsequently saw to it that she was paid less for Pulp Fiction, then no longer cast in A-list lead roles because of her rejection of his quid pro quo sexual harassment proposition. The Guardian wrote, "She has no evidence that Weinstein warned others against her." When the industry scuttlebutt about Weinstein's predation broke into the news in October 2017, Arquette was one of the first actresses to speak openly about his misconduct, with Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker and The New York Timess Jodi Kantor. In the documentary Untouchable about Weinstein focusing on those who have accused him of sexual abuse, Arquette, Paz de la Huerta, and Erika Rosenbaum are among those interviewed. Arquette has expanded into directing, including the documentaries Searching for Debra Winger and All We Are Saying ; she also produced both projects. Arquette appeared in the short-running What About Brian as Nicole Varsi and in Showtime's The L Word as Cherie Jaffe. She also guest-starred in Malcolm in the Middle as a healer named Anita who takes Malcolm's virginity. In 2009, she joined Fit Parent Magazine, founded by Craig Knight, as Editor at Large. Arquette starred in the 2011 French thriller The Divide, directed by Xavier Gens. In an August 8, 2019 interview with TheWrap, Arquette said the Federal Bureau of Investigation advised her to make her Twitter account private after online critics harassed her for tweeting that she had shame for being "white and privileged".
Personal life
Arquette dated Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro in the 1980s. The song "Rosanna" was partly based on her. She was romantically involved with Peter Gabriel for several years; his song "In Your Eyes" is said to be inspired by her. In August 2013, Arquette married her fourth husband, investment banker Todd Morgan, following a two-year engagement. Her previous marriages, to director Tony Greco, film composer James Newton Howard, and restaurateur John Sidel, had ended in divorce. She has one daughter, Zoe Bleu, with Sidel.
