Patricia Arquette Once Said It Was a Nightmare That Her Film ‘Boyhood’ Didn’t Win an Oscar
Actor Patricia Arquette won her first Oscar for starring in Before filmmaker Richard Linklater’s 2015 feature Boyhood. But the film itself didn’t win Hollywood’s biggest accolade, which disappointed the star.
Patricia Arquette’s ‘Boyhood’ lost to ‘Birdman’ at the Oscars
Boyhood was one of director Richard Linklater’s most intriguing projects. The film was shot over the span of 12 years, starring Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as a divorced couple raising two children. Boyhood was recognized by the Academy for its experimental filmmaking. The ceremony nominated it for several categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress, which Arquette won.
Even after winning the award, the Pretty Smart star still couldn’t believe her Oscar experience.
”It was surreal. I felt like I had been shot up with some weird drug that changed time,” she once said according to Contact Music. “[After] I felt depleted and shook up if I’m honest. I’d been working on Boyhood for 12 years and nobody gave a crap. I wasn’t any different. They saw it and thought I was different. I had to retreat to be with my family; let everyone else simmer down.”
But she admitted to being a little heartbroken that Linklater’s 12-year project didn’t win best picture. That honor went to Birdman.
“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. So many movies haven’t, I guess? But it is a nightmare,” she said in an interview with Buzzfeed.
Patricia Arquette said there weren’t many good parts for her before ‘Boyhood’ came along
Boyhood proved to be exactly the type of role that she was looking for. Arquette theorized that she won the role because of the challenges surrounding her character, which she believed many could relate to.
“I won the Academy Award because I played this single mother who worked her ass off, moving from apartment to apartment, sending herself back to school while working, taking care of her kids and being the main provider,” she said. “I thought, ‘If this does happen, how do I best serve this woman and the many women like her?’”
Arquette’s character gave her the opportunity to address issues about inequality that had been troubling her for quite some time.
“You know, in America we are very privileged, and we live pretty great lives. But when you just peel the surface off and you start looking at wage inequality and the ramifications of that, it’s really devastating to so many women. So I wanted to talk about that,” she said.
The role also couldn’t have come at a better time. When Boyhood came along, the Medium actor was becoming disillusioned by the film industry, and the types of parts available to women.
“I just had had my daughter and actually had already started Boyhood. There weren’t very good parts for women. It was very boring, pedestrian, a couple of scenes where you were just supporting a man. You were the good wife, but he was having an affair. Or you were the annoying wife, and he was having an affair! There was nothing to those parts,” she said.
Patricia Arquette didn’t want ‘Boyhood’ to end
Boyhood became very familiar to Arquette after shooting it for more than a decade. The Act star became very attached and involved in the film over that period. So much so that when it came time for the project to end, Arquette wasn’t fully ready to let it go.
“I never felt anything but excited and joyful, and I loved the experience, until last year. When it was starting to end, I felt really sad about it ending and really worried about letting it into the world. After I saw the film, I was like, ‘When I’m a real old gal and my time has come, I will know that I was a part of a real work of art that’s something really special,’” she once told Collider.
