David Arquette Talks The Good Half, Clowns, & Grief
This interview was originally posted on Film Obsessive.
David Arquette might be best known for his performance as the kind hearted cop Dewey Riley in the Scream franchise. His latest performance as Rick in Robert Schwartzman’s The Good Half could not be further from Dewey. Arquette’s Rick is a narcissist through and through. While the rest of the characters around him are grieving the death of their loved one, Rick is more concerned about when he’ll be able to grab a smoothie.
The Good Half follows siblings Renn (Nick Jonas) and Leigh (Brittany Snow) as they return to their hometown to plan the funeral for their mother (Elisabeth Shue). Their planning is overtaken by their stepfather, Rick (Arquette), who isn’t concerned with how the rest of the family would like to handle the death of their loved one. Arquette sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to chat about his upcoming film, The Good Half. The transcript has been edited for clarity and space.
What drew you to The Good Half?
Well, there was an incredible script written by an amazing writer Brett [Ryland] and I really loved it. And Robert Schwartzman is an incredible artist himself. Director, musician, and just all-around hilarious person. Once I read the script and read the character, he’s such a narcissistic character. His name’s Rick and he’s the stepfather to Nick Jonas’ character, Renn. He’s a real narcissist. He thinks about himself even though this whole experience is about Nick Jonas and Brittany Snow’s characters losing their mother. He makes it about Rick.
courtesy of Utopia
Rick is kind of the comedic relief punching bag presented as somebody who is not grieving properly or respectfully. I want to know, in your opinion, do you think Rick was genuinely grieving? Is there a distinctly wrong way to grieve the loss of somebody?
You have to really walk a really fine line when grieving and dealing with people who are going through that experience. You have to be really sensitive to it. It really brings up a lot in each other, brings out a lot of your insecurities, stress, and all different factors. You have to have a level of grace and understanding. For Rick, he makes all the decisions for the grieving family. There’s this big argument that my character and Nick’s character get into at the end of the film. It’s funny, my inspiration for why I got so upset in that scene wasn’t because of what Nick was saying to me. In the script, it was written that we all go from the funeral to the memorial service in a limousine together. On the day of shooting, Robert called up and he said, listen, David, I was thinking, we’re not going to have Rick in that scene, so you don’t have to come in for another hour. For me personally, that was cool. But for Rick? He was really upset. Rick was like, what do you mean I’m not in the limousine? Like, I paid for that limousine and I was really excited to ride in that limousine. That’s where his brain goes. So when he gets upset in that scene, he’s really upset about not being able to driven in the limousine.
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How do you connect yourself to that kind of person? Just from chatting with you now, that does not seem like the person that you are.
No (laughs). I’m fascinated by narcissists in general because there’s just such like a lack of empathy and it’s really all about them. I once I asked my therapist, I’m fascinated by narcissists, do you have any narcissistic clients? Can you tell me something about them? He’s like, no, I don’t have any narcissistic clients. I was like, really? That’s surprising. He goes, they don’t need me. That said it all to me. Things would happen in improvisation on the set and, I would go into my Rick brain about it. He’d just get really annoyed by things. He’s on his own schedule and everything was about him. He was just kind of bugged by people if they didn’t fit right into his world. In the movie, he’s supposed to go to meet the kids to talk to the priest and he stops to get a smoothie. He’s just that kind of guy.
I wanted to ask about your love of clowns because they have this rap of being scary to a lot of people. Inherently, though, they’re funny beings. Do you think that duality of comedy and horror that exists in clowns is somehow related to how grief and humor coexist together?
Wow. That’s interesting. Clowns are a really important aspect to society. Back in the monarchy days, they were the only ones that could really speak truth to power without the fear of being beheaded. They had this really interesting role in the court. I think they do sort of shine a mirror on society. I believe personally that our society is in such a dark place right now that we really need happy clowns more than ever. It’s really important for them to be out there making people laugh. Scary clowns are impostors. They’re not real clowns. A true clown is supposed to bring joy, happiness, and laughter. They make themselves the joke. They allow you to laugh at them.
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Do you see Rick as the clown of The Good Half?
Rick is a clown in a way. There’s commedia dell’arte. It’s a root of a lot of clowning and there’s all these different characters within that. Rick is an element of that. There’s one character who’s the boss that knows nothing. He’s the one who’s kind of the moron. There’s an element of that for sure.
I talked with Robert last week and he was explaining about how he wanted to run the set as this collaborative, vulnerable space. Can you talk a little bit about your experience as an actor on the set?
Robert has such a fantastic sort of energy to him and he’s really cool. He understands music, comedy, and literature. We had these rehearsals that were open to improvisation. Nick Jonas and Brittany Snow’s characters have this really interesting relationship to where they have this wry sense of humor with throwing jabs back and forth to each other under their breath almost. It’s really kind of cutting sometimes. Nick’s character doesn’t want to be in Cleveland at this time. And we apologize to Cleveland. Cleveland’s an incredible city and it gets sort of a bad rap in this film because it was taken from the writer’s personal experiences. He was going back to see Rick and was not excited about having to deal with this sort of tragedy. It does get a bad rap, but I love Cleveland. Everyone should go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s an amazing place. That being said, we’d have these rehearsals where we’d kind of just joke around and rag on Cleveland and each other. Nick would say like, oh, is that a smoothie? And I was like, yeah, it’s a smoothie juice. For some reason I said, smoothie juice and Robert said, that’s so funny, can you say that again and call it a “smuice?” He made up this stupid word and really made the scene richer.
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As someone living in Pittsburgh, I can’t condone all the positive Cleveland feelings that you’ve made because of the deep rivalry (laughs). There’s a recurring theme of characters collecting small, unassuming objects that connect them to one another. I was wondering if there’s some specific object in your life that, if someone saw it on the shelf, they wouldn’t think twice about it, but it holds something deep and meaningful to you?
Absolutely. I’m a collector, so there’s a ton of things that I just have that remind me of friends and people I’ve lost in my life. My favorite is probably from a film I did called Dream with the Fishes. Cathy Moriarty played my aunt in it and she had these pasties (laughs). It’s kind of ridiculous that I have these pasties, but they were given to me at the end of the film. It was a meaningful film for me. I did it right after I did the first Scream, and it always makes laugh they’re just sitting on the wall. It always reminds me of that time period.
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My last question for you is about the upcoming theatrical run. The Good Half is going to have two nights in theaters with a Q&A with Robert and Nick. What does the communal theatrical experience mean to you as someone who’s been in film for as long as you have?
It’s really great. When you watch a film with people who are having the shared experience with you, it kind of just elevates it. It’s not as personal when you’re sitting there on your phone, it’s just like an individual moment. In a theater, you’re there with people. Especially in a film like this that has laughter and it’s the kind of film that you might get choked up in. I personally feel like a room full of laughter is just such an uplifting feeling. It’s really important that people get out there, see this film, and embrace the sort of communal aspect of film watching.
Thank you so much, David! It’s a lovely film.
Thank you so much, Tina!
The Good Half will screen nationwide on July 23rd and 25th with an exclusive virtual conversation with Nick Jonas, Robert Schwartzman, and special guest moderator Kiernan Shipka. Tickets and a list of participating theater locations can be found HERE.
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