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At 57, Patricia Arquette is relishing a special type of freedom that comes with age for an actress.
“When I was younger, it was a lot about being likable all the time,” Arquette says. “There was a lot of that kind of direction, which felt very confining."
Now, with age and "liberation" from narrow societal views on womanhood, "there's this new realm that you can explore,” she says. Parts about women who “make questionable choices” to get their needs met, roles for which Arquette can ask: “What are they willing to do? What are they pretending they don't see?”
Arquette’s next such role is Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh for Hulu’s scripted “Murdaugh: Death in the Family” (first three episodes Oct. 15, then weekly on Wednesdays). The eight-episode limited series dramatizes the marred life of disbarred South Carolina attorney Richard Alexander "Alex" Murdaugh (Jason Clarke), who murdered his wife, Maggie, and their son Paul (Johnny Berchtold) on June 7, 2021. In addition to serving two life terms, Alex was sentenced to 40 years in connection with a multimillion-dollar financial fraud crime spree and 27 years for state fraud charges.
Maggie shows “a shadow side of women,” Arquette says. “The side of us that loves people that are really unhealthy for us, ultimately.”
The real Maggie and Alex met while attending the University of South Carolina and wed in 1993. They welcomed their first son, Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh Jr., in 1996 and Paul in 1999.
Though Arquette and Maggie's lives are quite different, Arquette says, she can relate to the former matriarch. “There have been times where I was committed to relationships and committed to being committed, and feeling like ‘Well, that's that, and that’s my person no matter what.’ I don't think I feel like that about anybody anymore (laughs). I feel like, 'No, not no matter what.' ”
Arquette has been celebrated for her ability to disappear into characters inspired by real life.
She earned her first Emmy in 2005 for her portrayal of psychic Allison DuBois, who helped solve crimes on “Medium” (NBC then CBS, 2005–2011). She won a Golden Globe for her turn as Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, a prison employee who helped inmates flee in Showtime’s “Escape At Dannemora” (2018), and picked up another Emmy and Globe for her depiction of the late Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, a mother believed to have been suffering from factitious disorder imposed on another (formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy) in Hulu’s “The Act” (2019).
“She's eminently watchable,” her “Murdaugh” costar Clarke, 56, says. “She just is Maggie in a way. She strips away the 'I'm watching somebody play somebody' and just is this woman married to this drug-addicted, selfish lawyer. She goes a long way to showing and demonstrating, through the script as well, how you can end up in this situation (despite) harboring the best of intentions.”
That evolution of Maggie’s circumstances is what intrigued Arquette. “I feel like I've seen a lot of women slowly, it's like a frog being boiled in a pot, you don't really realize the water's getting warmer,” she says.
“I think there's more diabolical people than we’re aware of. So is it strange that I keep doing this material? No. I mean, they're pretty juicy parts. They're weird, fascinating stories. I'm interested in seeing, how did it play out?”
Contributing: Michael M. DeWitt Jr., USA TODAY NETWORK
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Patricia Arquette finds this aspect of the Murdaugh murders 'really interesting'
Reporting by Erin Jensen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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