Patricia Arquette Got An Oscar Vote For Not Having Plastic Surgery While Filming ‘Boyhood’

Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-production drama, is a frontrunner for Best Picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards. Patricia Arquette, 46, is nominated for her turn as the single mother who ages in the script and ages on camera, as film crews shot the cast a few days every year for more than a decade. One Oscar voter revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that Arquette got her approval by not having plastic surgery during the course of the movie.

“I’m voting for Arquette. She gets points for working on a film for 12 years and bonus points for having no work done during the 12 years. If she had had work done during the 12 years, she would not be collecting these statues. It’s a bravery reward. It says, ‘You’re braver than me. You didn’t touch your face for 12 years. Way to freakin’ go!'”

While it might seem that the Oscar voter — who remained anonymous — was being tongue-in-cheek, Patricia Arquette revealed to The Guardian earlier this month that she and Linklater did in fact agree that she would minimize her facial alteration.

“The only thing Rick [Linklater] didn’t want me to do was a bunch of plastic surgery, that wouldn’t make sense for that mom and we all agreed on that. He doesn’t even remember saying that, but definitely, when a lot of actors started looking strange [in the noughties], he said: ‘Oh my god, please don’t ever do that.’ And I’m like, ‘You better get your movie done, I need a facelift!'”

Arquette, who recently criticized the media’s treatment of Bruce Jenner, also had comments about women in the movie industry. She said there is an expectation that women must remain youthful looking and even the most sought-after female actors are not on equal footing with men.

“You’re not supposed to age. You’re supposed to be perpetually incredibly attractive because that’s the way the movie world is. You might be 50 but you need to talk 35. Frankly, there is no shorter shelf life, other than that of a child actor, than that of the ingenue.

It’s so insidious. Women in America, we act like we have equality when the truth is we don’t. With the Sony hack, it was recognised that those actresses worked every bit as hard, they were just as valuable commodities, they had won awards, they had huge followings and big audiences yet Jennifer [Lawrence] was paid less than the men?”

Arquette said she has always been offered female-driven movies and affirmed that there have always been filmmakers interested in those projects, even if they have less access to funding.

In advance of the Oscars, Slate film critic Dana Stevens produced an analysis of Arquette’s final scene in Boyhood. As her character Olivia sends her son off to college, she experiences an emotional breakdown.

The Academy Awards air Sunday on ABC.

[Patricia Arquette image: Getty]