Patricia Arquette: ‘Lost Highway’ Nudity Was ‘Terrifying,’ Crew Members Were ‘Saying Gross Things’ on Set

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Patricia Arquette didn’t lose sleep over her nude scenes from David Lynch’s 1997 psychological erotic thriller “Lost Highway.”

Arquette, who played two separate roles — 1) an adulterer cheating on her jazz-musician husband (Bill Pullman), and 2) a temptress seducing a mechanic (Balthazar Getty) — said during Series Mania (via Variety) that she found a strip scene in the film “terrifying.” Arquette credited Lynch for scolding crew members who made “gross” comments ahead of filming her nude sequences.

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“I was so extremely modest: I would take a bath in the dark,” Arquette said. “The scene when my character had to strip was terrifying to me. Some of the guys were saying crude things and I told David, ‘I am not comfortable – they are saying gross things.’ He said, ‘You read the script.'”

As Arquette recalled, Lynch immediately switched to, “Wait, who said what?”

“When I came back, all these men were looking at their feet, all apologetic,” she added.

While filming a sex scene, Arquette recalled that she asked co-star Balthazar Getty to keep her chest hidden from the camera’s view. Then she spoke about what she called her “tough side.”

“It was supposed to be a closed set. I said, ‘If I take this robe off and I look at you, and I know you don’t have to be there, I am going to punch you in the face,'” Arquette recalled. “Later, I told Balthazar, ‘Just keep your hands on my tits. I would rather you hold them than the whole world saw them.'”

Arquette reflected on other nude sequences across her career, including for her breakout role in “True Romance.” Unlike for “True Romance,” Arquette noted that she did not work out to prepare for the nude scene in “Lost Highway.”

“I [worked out] for ‘True Romance’ and even then, my body type was not ‘the body type’ of that time. It was curvy and athletic, and strong, and I got criticism for that, ‘Your teeth aren’t straight’ and all this bullshit,” Arquette said. “Now, I look at ‘Lost Highway’ and think, ‘It wasn’t such a big risk. You look alright, kid.'”

You are alright, kid.

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