i always had a soft spot for David Arquette. From the first time I tracked him down, in a little part in Beverly Hills 90210, and sometime later, whether he played the dorky cop in the Scream movies, wore offbeat indie movies like Dream with the Fishes, or he played a Jewish rebel in the Holocaust movie The Gray Zone, he radiated a sweet lie that you just can not fake. It was jubilant to find his goofily handsome face on screen, like finding your brother’s funny friend who hung out in your kitchen when you were home from school.
The baby brother of award-winning actors Rosanna, Patricia and Alexis, his talent was obvious; he was on the cover of Vanity Fair’s 1996 Hollywood release alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Benicio del Toro. He was such that even though his character would die in the first Scream, Wes Craven rejected the script, so he became the backbone of the franchise.
Back in the heyday of Arquette, in the mid to late 90s, he was even more comfortable on screen, uncensored in interviews and playing pranks on shocking talk show hosts, like doing backflips and getting a rubber chicken out of his pants on Conan O’Brien’s show. At the time, Jennifer Aniston was often photographed with her then-husband, Brad Pitt, the two in matching Calvin Klein. Her boyfriend, Courteney Cox, was also often photographed with Arquette, her then-husband, her downright Hollywood standard slim and he looked like he had been in a fight with a charity shop and lost.
There were already awake celebrities, but there was something not only authentic, but playful to the eccentricities of Arquette. But there is a fine line between eccentric and just strange, and, for many, he crosses it. In 2000, at the height of his acting fame, he became a professional wrestler and was crowned the WCW’s heavyweight champion of the world. His career stopped, his marriage to Cox sputtered and he went to rehab. From then on, it seems, he could not get love.
Arquette, who will turn 50 next month, is in his Los Angeles home, where he lives with his second wife, Christina, and their two young sons (they also have a home in Nashville), when we connect to Zoom. I have about a million questions to ask him, but I am immediately distracted. Why is there a fully clothed, giant monkey behind him?
‘This man? He is an animatronic monkey who blows. The same kind of puppet was in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, outside the bike shop, ‘he says, as if explaining it all. He once wore wildly patterned shirts and often ridiculous headgear, but today he looks legally sensible in a dark sporty top and T-shirt. ‘I think one of the reasons I once disguised myself was that I would be super embarrassed to go out on stage and play. That I would be, I’m SO over the top that you can make me funny, but I’m on the joke, did you know? ‘ he says, his eyes deliberately dropping up and down. Arquette comes across as incredibly self-confident and also a jangly bag of fear.
We’ve talking today because Arquette appears in a new movie, Spree, in which he plays the confused father of a psychopathic, social media-obsessed teenager. Arquette is his usual friendly self and it is always a relief when he appears in a scene. But it’s a pretty hefty movie; does he like that kind of scenes?
‘No, I hate it. It’s really uncomfortable with all the sticky fake blood they use. It’s funny, with everyone becoming more aware of political correctness and everything, but violence is still good, it seems. It’s a testament to where we are in society, I think, ‘he says.
This is true, but it is surprising to hear such pacifism from – and I may have already mentioned this – a wrestler. He even built a ring in his yard, much to the horror of his wife, so he could practice jumping rope and through to an opponent’s neck. He recently made a documentary about his love of wrestling, called You Cannot Kill David Arquette, directed by David Darg and Price James, and it is one of the most jaw-dropping films I have ever seen. In addition to the intense bonkersness of watching a once great Hollywood player being beaten in former gardens by former criminals to prove his credit, it’s a very moving film. I’m not a fan of wrestling, but thanks to Arquette’s open vulnerability and determination of kamikaze, I cried during his climax match.
“Oh, thank you very much! That made my wants to cry! Arquette says, his voice cracking. His emotions are never far from the surface. “I just wanted to honor wrestling, explain to the fans what happened 20 years ago and get their respect and the respect of the wrestlers.”
What happened 20 years ago was this: Arquette, a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, made the dopey wrestling comedy Ready to Rumble. At the back he started appearing in World Championship Wrestling events. As the film Arquette puts it coyly, it was, at one point or another, “determined that he would win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to bring mainstream attention to the event.” (Arquette repeatedly says in the film that “wrestling is not fake”, and although the injuries are not, we see the matches carefully choreographed.)
That said, Arquette got the championship belt, but wrestling fans were disgusted that this Hollywood-handsome boy had gazumped her heroes. He spent a lot of time winning her round, and – unlike the title of the film – almost killed him with difficulty. He has had a heart attack, has had two stents inserted and is on blood thinner. However, he returned to pro wrestling in 2018 and, two years ago, he agreed to be in a wrestling deathmatch, in which weapons are allowed. His neck was cut with a chimney of glass. We see this match in the documentary and the look of fear in Arquette’s eyes is cool. Didn’t he think at that point that he might have taken the wrestling thing a little too far?
‘Oh, absolutely. I thought I died! I came out of the ring and I said no [longterm friend] Luke [Perry]: ‘Luke, is it pumping?’ And he said, ‘No, Davey.’ That I knew I had not hit a jugular, and in the end I got five pieces, ”he says. But before that, he went back into the ring to end the match, so the fans did not think he was a wuss. ‘I wanted to put a button on the match. But, yes, it was pretty hard. ”
Arquette spends a lot of time in the film trying to explain his wrestling obsession. Sure, his ex-wife is being ostracized by it. “I was on Friends, everything looked pretty good with our career, then he suddenly wants to start wrestling, and I remember feeling embarrassed because there was nothing small about the way he hugged wrestling , “she says. The two of them are about to be together in Scream 5. Wouldn’t that be painful when they meet on the first Scream?
“No, it’s been 10 years now, so there’s a lot of cure,” he says. But, in 2018, when he saw a clip of Scream with a journalist, he cried.
Somehow Arquette’s wrestling love makes sense: he can hide in costumes – “I can wear sequins and Spandex!” – and enjoy his showman side. It is unfortunate that it comes with violence and judgment from outsiders, two things that make him miserable. “I’ve never been one to quit a fight, but I do not like to fight,” he admits. “There’s so much violence in the world that it’s getting pretty tough.”
The real reason Arquette loves wrestling is because he associates it with his father, Lewis. “My dad used to take me to games, and he was the voice of Superfly Jimmy Snuka [on Hulk Hogan’s cartoon, Rock’n’Wrestling]. He died when I was 29 and I really miss him… ”he kicks off.
Arquette’s parents were hippies and he was born in a church in Virginia. In the documentary, his siblings – besides Rosanna, Patricia and Alexis, he also has an older brother Richmond – describe their mother as physically abused. ‘My mother was one of the dearest, dearest angels, but she abused us. We had a turbulent childhood, but also a childhood full of love, ”says Arquette. He discovered acting in high school, which was not surprising since he comes from a long line of entertainers: his great-grandparents were vaudevillians, his grandfather a radio artist and his father a jobing actor. “I just always want to make contact with people and make them smile,” he says.
Somehow he reminds me of his character in the romcom Never Been Kissed from 1999, the man who never quite grew up. “Who wants to grow up?” Arquette asks in the documentary. One of the most disturbing moments is when he goes for a brain scan. “His brain is not connected in a typical way,” the doctor confirms, suggesting that this may just be the way he is made as a result of head trauma. “I always knew I was wired differently,” he says. ‘But it was funny to hear it in a doctor’s office.’
There is no question that he has unique cables. The man once opted for potential Oscar glory instead of going out of his way to hit his head, over and over again. For so long he was desperate for respect, but the more he got from the wrestling world, the less he got from Hollywood. Arquette refuses to blame the wrestler for the decline in his fortune; others see it differently (“His involvement in wrestling has really hurt his career,” says Christina). But it hurts him that people have seen him as a joke for so long. I tell him I did not understand what he was doing, but I never saw him as a joke.
“Oh, that’s so dear to you,” he says, and speaks again. ‘At one point, I realized I was going to put myself in a position to lower myself, so I was more depressed. It’s like putting yourself in a deathmatch – why? It spoils yourself with pain. But I do not want to make the same mistakes again. ‘
It’s been a rough few years for Arquette. Luke Perry died suddenly, as did Arquette’s sister Alexis. ‘They were really close, so the thought of hanging on to them brings me a lot of fun. I think it’s all more connected than any of us whites, ”he says. His brothers and relatives supported him through the wrestling, but they were really worried about him. She does not have to worry so much anymore: he has agreed that it is time to start wearing it and that he enjoyed the performance again, which makes people smile.
‘I want to be the best person I can be for my wife, for my children, for myself. That is, how do I have fun without being destructive? That’s me now. ‘Behind him smiles a monkey hopefully, blowing not drowned.
• Spree will be released on August 14th. You Canot Kill David Arquette will premiere on August 28 via digital release and on demand
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