Patricia Arquette back as another fascinating outsider in kooky new role 

LOS ANGELES – Oscar winner Patricia Arquette excels at playing – and humanising – women who do not colour inside the lines.

The American actress took home Emmys for her role as a psychic in the supernatural series Medium (2005 to 2011) and true-crime drama The Act (2019), where she played a woman accused of fabricating her daughter’s illness.

In Escape At Dannemora (2018), she was a married female prison worker who had affairs with two inmates and helped them break out of jail, a performance that won her a Golden Globe and other awards.

And in the kooky dark comedy series High Desert, which premieres on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, Arquette has found another oddly relatable oddball: a recovering drug addict and hustler named Peggy.

Struggling to make a living in a California desert town, the chaotic but resourceful protagonist decides to become a private investigator, which brings her into the orbit of a host of eccentric characters, including a shady local mystic named Guru Bob (Rupert Friend).

Her life is further complicated by the constant disapproval of her straitlaced siblings Dianne (Christine Taylor) and Stewart (Keir O’Donnell), and the sudden release from prison of her charming former husband Denny (Matt Dillon).

Chatting to reporters over Zoom, Arquette – who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014) – says her character is loosely based on High Desert writer Nancy Fichman’s sister as well as people Arquette has encountered herself.

“I have known a lot of different drug addicts throughout my life, many who unfortunately passed away.

“I loved them, but they were very complicated people and you could never really talk sense to them – they had a different way of looking at things,” says the 55-year-old star, who also appears in the acclaimed science-fiction series Severance (2022 to present).

“And Peggy’s got this whole hustle going on. She doesn’t really want to look at her own pain, and Denny, the love of her life, is as messed up and complicated and wonderful as she is.”

Peggy is clever and observant, but a dysfunctional mess in much of the rest of her life.

“I know a lot of people like this,” says Dillon, who was Oscar-nominated for the crime drama Crash (2004).

“That’s why these people seem very real to me. It’s very truthful because these characters are somewhat based on real people, and that’s why I liked the material,” adds the 59-year-old American actor.

But Arquette believes Peggy and Denny are not so different from everyone else.

“They say that a lot of times, there’s not a lot of difference between cops and robbers.

“That adrenaline junkie kind of way of living and that sort of wildness... They make their own reality and moral code and, as Matt says, they like to redistribute wealth,” she says.

This often makes the people around them crazy, she notes.

“But all of these characters are just trying to survive and they are looking for love, in some kind of way.

“They are very flawed and weak, but they also want to take care of others. So they’re just complicated.”

At the same time, people like this are often fascinating, and others will often find themselves drawn to them.

Says Friend, who plays television anchorman-turned-guru Bob: “It’s like that car crash you can’t look away from.

“Peggy’s kind of a hot mess, but as you can see, hot messes are sort of irresistible. It’s like, ‘What is she doing to do next?’” says the 41-year-old English actor, who did a stint on the political drama Homeland (2011 to 2020).

“Around someone like Peggy – and we all know that person, I think – you’re aware that it might get dangerous, terrifying, ruinous and catastrophic, but it’s never going to be boring.

“I think that’s why it’s so addictive, or at least fun to be around.”

High Desert premieres on Apple TV+ on Wednesday.