'Scream' Star David Arquette Is Taking Stock of His Happiness
Cultivating Positivity and Confidence with Everyone's Fav Horror Movie Deputy
With a new movie crushing it at the box office in Scream, the fifth release from a horror franchise that’s spanned 25 years, David Arquette is taking stock of his happiness.
When we connect by phone, he sounds like a man deeply appreciative for all of life’s curveballs that have been thrown his way over the past few decades. His voice, laid back and humbled, imparts little nuggets of wisdom that could only be ascertained by someone who takes a curious approach to life.
“I’m not big on regret,” he tells AskMen. “I like to think of lessons, learn from them, and not keep repeating them over and over again.”
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Over the course of our conversation, Arquette discusses his path to acting, elaborates on his current Bozo the Clown project, and reveals his strategies for maintaining a healthy mindset and eliminating anxieties.
AskMen: Was acting always the path for you or were there other aspirations or interests?
David Arquette: I’ve always loved art. I was doing graffiti as a kid as a part of hip hop subculture, and loved spray painting big murals and stuff. But acting was always a part of our background, for sure.
My father was an improvisational actor and my mother also taught it, so we studied a lot with them. I performed in little plays in elementary school and when I got into high school, my teacher got me to focus and channel my energy. I’d gone on a few auditions just growing up in Hollywood and always got rejected, but after I started taking drama classes, I placed in a drama competition — anonymously without mention of my family — and that kind of gave me the confidence that I too might have an [acting] ability as well. It gave me the focus and the techniques to train and led me on a path to acting.
But art has always been a second, or fellow, love of mine.
You mentioned that your experience in high school gave you the confidence needed to pursue acting. Was there a point early on in your career that validated the decision to go down that path?
I was fortunate enough to get a couple of TV shows right off the bat that went for a year each. They didn’t get picked up to multiple seasons, but within them, we shot 26 episodes between the two. They were single camera, so I got to really understand how to interact with the camera. There were moments where I really felt I embodied the character, which gave me a lot of confidence and understanding around the relationship between actor, camera, and the process.
I did a film called Johns really early in my career, and that also gave me a lot of confidence in studying a character, understanding the character, doing the research that it takes, and building a character. It was a leading role so it was an opportunity to have some time on screen to be able to capture the character’s essence and to just have the confidence that you need. Acting is really about confidence, being confident enough to find the real moments, and then opening up and being vulnerable enough to hopefully connect with an audience.
Has honing the ability to have that confidence transferred over to everyday David Arquette, or has there always been a division between confidence in acting and your own self-confidence?
Believe it or not, wrestling had a lot to do with that [self]-confidence, and even confidence as far as acting goes. Wrestling really teaches you to be in the moment, to stand up for yourself, and to have a voice. You have to protect yourself in a sense and be able to say, “I don’t want to do that.” You learn you have to not be a pushover for sure.
I went through a divorce and that was pretty painful for me. Meeting [my current wife] helped me heal, move on, and have confidence again. It’s a pretty traumatic experience and it takes a lot. You kind of have to rebuild to have that confidence, belief in yourself, the drive to get things done, get back on the horse, and choose how you want to manifest the rest of your life.
Divorce must really shake someone up in so many ways.
Absolutely. I was just reading an article from Henry Miller about life and not getting bitter.
Avoid getting bitter. It’s easy to get bitter or wounded after something like that, and just kind of shell-shocked and not wanting to engage. To be able to pursue life, you really have to be able to be open to it.
In many ways you can say that’s the highest form of growth. Just like with working on this new Scream, you can be in an environment where you don’t hold bitterness and still maintain that sense of self.
Doing Scream was a great experience. It tracked 25 years of my life, so it was a great opportunity and I’m really grateful to Wes [Craven] for keeping me alive. I was supposed to die in the first [film], but he kept me alive and allowed me that opportunity. It’s pretty funny, it’s very parallel to my life. It was a great experience.
I think also as you get older, you start figuring some things out. I’m not big on regret. I like to think of lessons and learn from them, and not keep repeating them over and over again.
Do you find yourself going through periods of self-reflection, making certain adjustments in order to not keep repeating the same mistakes?
I call it getting into the flow of life. A lot of times, I’ll be doing things that become my worst enemy or self-sabotage.
One of the things I learned in wrestling was when I did something called the Death Match and got stabbed in the neck. I had a lot of time in the hospital to kind of reflect on why did I put myself in that situation, and [to figure out] what am I beating myself up for so much. How can I avoid beating myself up? That then goes to, “How can I take care of myself?”
I have a lot of anxieties and depression sometimes, so working out, eating right, and getting enough sleep are positive ways to deal with stressful situations that help discontinue the bad behavior.
It’s easy to draft the plan, but sticking with it can be a little cumbersome.
It’s a day-to-day situation. You plan ahead if it’s business or if it’s family, and then you try balancing the two. Being clear headed, being responsible, making your appointments, taking care of the things you need to take care of, cleaning out the garage when you have to. That kind of stuff.
It sounds like action-based tasks really help keep the ship moving in the right direction.
Absolutely. Physical exercise, doing something creative are just things that feel so good for your spirit in general. You’ll feel better if you do something creative everyday, if you do something physical everyday. [Or] if you don’t skip meals and you don’t eat a bunch of junk.
It’s funny, the older you get, if you eat something healthy, you can start feeling it in your body. I don’t feel the drag, which helps you start becoming more aware of that kind of stuff. You also become more aware of not wanting to waste your time on certain things, like if old relationships or friendships have run their course. You won’t spend as much time on stuff like that.
At the end of the day, it’s more about balance and finding what balance works for you.
Absolutely. Balance is everything.
With that note, you acquired the rights to Bozo the Clown, which is obviously going to take up a lot of your time. What’s the plan for the property and its future?
It’s been a lot of work and a lot of ongoing avenues. We’ve doing some licensing deals and t-shirts, Bozo.com, and engaged with a couple charities — Healthy Humor and Your Mom Cares. We’re going to study with Healthy Humor to learn how to be a medical clown while entertaining kids and families who are going through hard times.
I premiered Bozo on New Year’s Eve with a new look. We’re trying to rehabilitate the clown image at the moment because we did a bunch of research with parents and kids and the white makeup was taken as kind of scary, so we’re doing a softer look but it still has the same energy.
Bozo’s been in the studio cutting tracks which we are really excited about. We introduced Jozo Bozo, the first female Bozo. The whole goal is to inspire kids and adults to let their clown out. The world’s gotten so serious that we really want people to tap into the silly side. Maybe deal with conflict resolution in a more creative, fun way without anger being the go-to for most exchanges. Hopefully we can cultivate the kinder elements of our society and interactions on social media.
Personally, I’ve been trying to focus on the positive. There’s always stuff that comes up in life, so you have to handle that, but once you put that to bed, you can get back to having fun.
Follow @davidarquette and check out www.Bozo.com for the latest on Bozo the Clown.
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