An Exclusive Interview with Rosanna Arquette, talking about the new Director’s Cut of ‘The Linguini Incident’, released July 23rd

Interviews

0

Rosanna Arquette earned widespread critical acclaim for her role in ‘The Executioner’s Song’ in the 80s, garnering an Emmy Award nomination in the process. Three years later, she won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’. During the 80s, she also appeared in films like ‘After Hours’ and ‘The Big Blue’. Her 90s films include ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Crash’ and ‘The Linguini Incident’ with David Bowie.  She also became known for her starring role in ABC’s ‘What About Brian’ during the 2000s. Rosanna started working professionally as a teenager and has never stopped. She has appeared in over 70 films.

As a busy actress, filmmaker, and activist, her passion for her work is matched only by her passion for her daughter Zoe Bleu Sidel and her family.  

——————————————————————————————————————-

Earlier this month I spoke with Rosanna and we discussed her memories of working with David in ‘The Linguini Incident’, ahead of the July 23rd release of the new director’s cut of the film, by Richard Shepard.

DBN: Hi Rosanna, thanks so much for agreeing to share your memories of working with David on The Linguini Incident, which is coming out again in a new director’s cut on Blu-ray and streaming services on July 23rd.

RA: Hi, how are you? You saw it? 

DBN: Good thanks, yeah, Richard kindly sent me a link a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, it flows a lot better than the original and is definitely more enjoyable.

RA: He did a really great job. And it was kind of amazing that he could find it because for years, well it just disappeared. he couldn’t find it was so frustrating. And you know, he was a kid when he directed it like literally he was 25, like a kid. Yeah. So I’m happy with it. I always, always had a special place in my heart. symbolically for many reasons, but personally it was a crazy time in my life. And I just, I always loved that movie. And I loved working with David. We were really, really close doing this.

DBN: I watched Desperately Seeking Susan again last night as I knew we were speaking today, it’s one on my personal favourite films.

RA: I prefer this one (The Linguini Incident), I have to say, I do, as an actor, and I just prefer my work in it. And I do think it’s really different from anything. I’ve never seen anything like it as a film. 

DBN: It is great. I think it’s a lot more cohesive, this new cut. because when I first watched it initially, a few years ago, when it came out, I found it quite hard to follow, but this seems a lot better, it flows a lot better.

RA: Yeah, it flows and yeah, I don’t know. If you really listen to the script, it’s actually an excellent screenplay. It really is. It’s so funny and it’s smart. It is. But yeah, I just really love this movie. 

DBN: So were you the first star to be cast in the film? 

RA: Yeah.

DBN: Did you know David before? Had you met him before this? 

RA: We had met through the years but not like this and where we were hanging out and, you know, he fell in love with Iman. He met her during that movie. It was funny that she had a cameo. Oh my god, I think they had met, but like, but really, we started the movie and then we were really, really close friends. 

And so he was like, I think I’m falling in love. I think I’ve met my soulmate, like, you know, and it was Iman. It’s so nice that he did meet her because they were the perfect couple and they were, yeah, so good for each other. 

He was great, very smart, well -read. We love books. And, you know, he turned me on to, I think it’s the things he turned me on to, the band Sonic Youth. He turned me on to the painter, Odd Nerdrum, an amazing Norwegian painter.

We were just great pals. We talked very deeply about relationships. And I had just broken up with my relationship with Peter Gabriel and went right into that movie. 

So it was kind of the, you know, doing that with a broken heart. 

DBN: Yeah. 

RA: And it was just like sad, ‘cause I never thought we would ever split. But we’re good pals now. 

DBN: So what was it like actually working with David? 

RA: He was great i never thought of anything but just connecting because i don’t like to go, i don’t you know when you’re in the moment, it’s all about being in the moment being present, that’s what it is and for him that’s what we were we just connected and being present with each other and then did the work and he was fantastic, he was great, he was very funny too, he’s very funny in this movie.

DBN: He’s very funny, yeah, very good. Did you like The Man Who Fell To Earth? That’s my favourite Bowie film of all time. 

RA: Yeah, that was a classic. He’s incredible in that. He’s just incredible. Also in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, super film. 

DBN: Yeah, really, really good. I love that.

RA: Also The Hunger and I also saw him, I saw him on stage, The Elephant Man. 

DBN: You lucky thing. I would love to have been old enough to get to New York then, but I was 11. So all I’ve got of that is an audio recording of the whole performance. There’s no video. Well, there’s professional video that was shot for like TV news and stuff, but there’s no whole show filmed, unfortunately.

Did you see David’s play ‘Lazarus’?

RA: No, I never saw Lazarus. Well, I love his last music. Like it’s a heavy album. It’s heavy. It’s really like he left with, you know, everything that was coming out, like just about the world and the rage of it. Like there was a lot in there and it’s painful and with the video for Lazarus. Yeah, that’s, that’s dark. Blackstar. Yeah. It was dark. 

DBN: It is very, yes, but so beautiful.

RA: It’s an amazing record, amazing. I actually love it. 

DBN: I went to New York & London to see Lazarus, it was incredible.

RA: Alexis Arquette, we all love music. We love music so much in our family. So when Alexis passed, we were listening to records. I think we brought her record player with a whole collection of records that were mine from years ago, but what was playing when Alexis passed was Starman. 

DBN: Aw. that’s lovely. I was so sad to hear about that. That was 2016, wasn’t it? 

RA: Yeah. We’re coming up to the anniversary. We started a clinic with Dr. Astrid Heger, the violence intervention program at USC Medical Center called the Alexis Project, which is a clinic for the LGBTQIA community. So under Alexis’ name and her legacy. 

DBN: In this new Blu -ray coming out on the 23rd with the directors cut are there any specific new or extended scenes you’re excited for audiences to see?

RA: Well, so, you know, I never really sit and watch my movies, even with this movie, It took me 10 years to really see the full cut of Desperately Seeking Susan, at some San Francisco film festival.

But I did watch this film and I have seen this movie a lot. I mean, not to say I haven’t seen my films, but a lot of them I haven’t. 

So this one, I wasn’t like familiar with every cut and what was in it. I just know that when I got to see this the last time that Richard showed it to me recently was with my daughter and my niece, Harlow, my daughter Zoe and Harlow. 

And it was so great to see it with them and they loved it, this whole new generation who also will discover David Bowie. And they really, really dug it. And that was great. 

DBN: How did Richard’s vision of the film and his approach change during the making of the director’s cut? Did he have any specific ideas in mind of how he wants to change the flow? 

RA: He got it into like, he, like both him and Tamar who wrote it, it was such a great script. And I, I loved it so much. And, but I think that there was a lot of frustration happening because of the producing partner that wasn’t paying people. 

And it really put a lot of stress on him. So there was a lot of stuff that was happening on the set. And so he had a very bad taste in his mouth about this experience, his first movie, and then it came out during the LA riots, and was like, came and went and there were really amazing reviews, and then there was like, this one, It might have been the only time, but I don’t know who it was, but it was not nice. somebody that just crushed him you know, and when that happens, and you just, that’s why I don’t read reviews, good or bad. 

I learned that lesson early on, very young, like where, you know, you’re hailed as whatever, and then the word, you know, the meanest, most horrible things that possibly can be said. And then it’s like, that was it, like, okay, I am never reading a review ever again, even if it’s glowing, I just don’t read them. 

You don’t need someone’s opinion to like, in their opinion, can take you down like that. And he was young, he was like his first movie. So it was terrible for him. So that when he was able to like, you know, he’s a great director, and now he’s can do, you know, that he was able to go in there, get his movie back, we cut it to where he felt it was at least his view of something in the time it was being a 24/25 year old filmmaker, you know, and, and coming from that place and fixing it, where he felt more comfortable. There’s some things they think they were a little longer, like, I think this bar scene, you know, they had cut a lot out, there were things that were cut out. So he put things back, even just close ups, but they could never, I think they couldn’t find, they could, they could never find the master. So they had to go in and use what they had.

DBN: What did you think that David brought to The Linguini Incident? 

RA: Well, himself. Yeah. He’s an icon and he was, and in the world, because he was an icon in this movie, that’s incredible. But his spirit was so great. He was there on the set. He never was negative. He talked with everybody, talked to the crew. He was really open. He was funny, so smart. He liked being with us and staying on the set. He wasn’t snobby and go away in his trailer, he was just there to learn, to watch, to connect and be there. That’s always a great thing. His presence was a lot and energetically very beautiful for this film. And let’s not forget about Eszter Balint who I absolutely love. And she was just wonderful. And we recently just all got to be with Richard and his wife, Jenny and Eszter and I and Marlee Matlin. We all got to show it to an audience that just loved it. But I love Eszter Balint, She’s very talented.

DBN: If you had to pick your greatest memory making The Linguini Incident’, what would it be? 

RA: Well, the greatest, I think of the greatest memories of Linguini would be just hanging out with Bowie and like having these amazing conversations just about life off camera, you know? And that’s, if I think about it, that’s the memory. We would go to dinner and he was able to tell me like, I fell in love, you know, about his relationship with Iman and I had broken up a relationship. So he kind of walked through that pain stuff with me. It was cool. We were just great pals. So that’s it, that just the off camera connection with him as an artist and friend.

DBN: Who are your favourite bands then?

RA: My favorite band is Radiohead, I love Thom Yorke. I love, you know, Jonny. I love their band, The Smile, together. 

DBN: What about your favourite Bowie album?

RA: Ziggy Stardust, I love that whole record but I really love the song ‘It ain’t easy’

DBN: Brilliant album, ‘Scary Monsters’ is my favourite. 

Thanks so much for doing this, Rosanna, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

RA: Thanks hun.

_____________________________________________________________________

The new 4K director’s cut of ‘The Linguini Incident’ is released on July 23rd on Blu-ray and on streaming services. The Blu-ray is region free and will play on all Blu-ray players worldwide.

Order the region free Blu-ray Here (Amazon.com)

It’s not available on Amazon UK unfortunately but you can order from their US site above.

Lucy (Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction) is an underpaid waitress at “Dali”, a terminally hip New York City restaurant, who’s seriously in need of cash. Dali’s new, mysterious, charming (and very in debt) bartender, Monte (David Bowie, The Hunger) needs to marry someone, anyone, by the end of the week… or else. Together they join forces— along with Lucy’s lingerie designing best friend, Viv (Eszter Balint, Stranger Than Paradise) — to rob the popular eatery and solve their financial woes. However these three are far from master criminals and they soon learn that in robberies, as in love, things never go as planned.

This “lively and amusing” (Los Angeles Times) romantic caper co-stars Andre Gregory (Demolition Man), Buck Henry (Heaven Can Wait) and Academy Award® winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) and features “David Bowie’s zaniest most underrated film role” (Collider) in this engaging romantic comedy from acclaimed director Richard Shepard (The Matador) in this never before seen director’s cut.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High Definition (1080p) presentation of the director’s cut of the main feature in 1.78:1 (struck from a brand new 4K transfer from film interpositive)
• Audio: LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Introduction by Director Richard Shepard
• Commentary with Director Richard Shepard, actors Rosanna Arquette and Eszter Balint, co-producer Sarah Jackson and co-screenwriter Tamar Brott, moderated by “Cereal at Midnight’s” Heath Holland
• Commentary by Director Richard Shepard
• “The Making of The Linguini Incident” – Feature length documentary about the making of the film featuring interviews with Richard Shepard, Tamar Brott, Rosanna Arquette, Eszter Balint Marlee Matlin, Sarah Jackson, Marcia Hinds and Richard von Ernst (1:44:26, HD, with optional English subtitles)
• Photo Gallery with commentary by Richard Shepard
• The Linguini Incident – Original Theatrical Version (SD, 98:00)
• 2024 Theatrical Trailer (HD)
• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)
• Reversible Artwork

Watch the Trailer for the new Directors Cut..

Many thanks to Rosanna Arquette for taking the time to talk, it was truly fascinating, (we also spoke at length about Desperately Seeking Susan, politics, the current state of the world and our mutual love of Bad Sisters, can’t wait for season 2!)

Interview by Nick Vernon. © 2024, David Bowie News.

You can follow Rosanna via her Instagram page and her website.

Many thanks to the director of ‘The Linguini Incident’, Richard Shepard for sending me a couple of exclusive photos as shown above.

Click on any photo to see full size.