Patricia Arquette: ‘I’ve buried a lot of people I love’

As she returns to TV in the mind-bending Severance, the actor talks about life in the never-ending emergency' that is America, why she'll never find Trump funny, and her need for a low-drama lifestyle

How did I feel?" repeats Patricia Arquette, clearly irritated. I have just asked the actor how it felt to land a role in Medium, the supernatural drama series that won her an Emmy - only to be asked to lose weight for the role. Although it happened in 2005, it is still clearly a sore point. I felt annoyed and crappy. But I feel like it's been a conversation my whole life. When True Romance came out, some critics said I was too fat or too heavy. I changed channels recently, happened upon True Romance, and thought, Oh my God, look how young I was! I had a beautiful body. What are you talking about?'"

After True Romance, the Tony Scott-directed film in which she played a sex worker who falls in love with Christian Slater's comic-book nerd, Arquette went on to star in plenty of acclaimed films, from David Lynch's Lost Highway to Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead. The latter starred Nicolas Cage, who she married in 1995. Their marriage lasted nine months.