TV Times – 27 July 2019

TV TIMES 21

Oscar-winning star

Patricia Arquette

on playing an

empty-nester in

new Netflix film

Otherhood

F

or empty-nesters, what’s the

difference between letting

your children grow up and

letting them grow distant?

That’s the question at the heart

of Otherhood, a new Netflix film

starring Hollywood leading ladies

Patricia Arquette, Angela Bassett

and Felicity Huffman.

‘It’s a comedy... a kind of mom-

edy,’ says Patricia, 51, who won an

Oscar for her role as gutsy single

mum Olivia Evans in critically

acclaimed film Boyhood (2014).

‘It’s about three moms who are

in their 50s and how they feel

disconnected from their sons.’

Based on William Sutcliffe’s

novel Whatever Makes You Happy,

the story follows Gillian (Patricia),

Carol (Angela) and Helen (Felicity),

who, feeling hurt when they don’t

hear from their grown-up sons on

Mother’s Day, drive to New York

City to reconnect with their boys...

‘The film’s an exploration of life

after motherhood,’ says Patricia,

who recently played Dee Dee

Blanchard, a mother suffering

from Munchausen syndrome by

proxy (where a parent harms their

child in order to care

for them) in US true-

life series The Act.

Here, the mum-

of-two tells us why

she’s more than

happy swapping

ingénue roles to

play mothers...

How would you describe the road

trip to New York in Otherhood?

It becomes a journey of rediscovery

that forces these women to redefine

their relationships with their sons,

friends and, most importantly,

themselves. It was really fun to

be part of. I play a normal mom

and I really needed that.

Is that because of your recent role

as Dee Dee Blanchard in The Act?

I had always been fascinated by

Munchausen by proxy. It is so

terrifying to me that parents could

actually put their children in

danger – it goes against everything

that nature builds in. Otherhood

wasn’t heavy – no one dies!

Before filming

Otherhood, you

gained over 40lb

for your Golden

Globe-winning

role in last year’s

US crime drama

Escape at

Dannemora. Was that hard in

an image-obsessed industry?

It felt liberating actually. There

were a lot of people before I did

Dannemora who said, ‘Oh my God,

don’t gain weight! Don’t let them

make you look like that or you

won’t be able to get jobs.’ I was like,

‘I’m an actor, just let me act!’ I don’t

feel we put that on males and I don’t

want to carry it around any more.

And anyway, I don’t want to be the

ingénue for ever – you can’t. We

see people my age still trying to be

ingénues and, at a certain point,

you look... otherworldly.

You don’t seem to be short of

interesting roles, Patricia...

At 51, it’s pretty crazy to be getting

these parts – all this character

stuff and being able to play such

complicated people. I’m lucky

that I’m at this age at a time where

plenty of people are trying to make

a lot of new content for a lot of

channels. It’s a good time to be in

Hollywood and our industry.

What other projects do you have

coming up?

I’m writing a book and directing

a film, so I’ve got lots of little fires

burning all over the place!

Rebecca Fletcher

On Demand

The best of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, iPlayer, NOW TV and much more...

PHOTO: GETTY

NEW COMEDY

Otherhood

Available Fri 2 August

Running time 100 mins

‘It’s a mom - edy!’

TV TIMES 21

OTHERHOOD IS PREVIEWED

ON PAGES 80-81

At 51, it’s

pretty crazy

to be getting

these parts