The socially-aware Patricia Arquette

When Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress at the 87th Oscars, she grabbed the opportunity to tell millions of TV viewers around the world about the plight of women not only in the US but perhaps around the world.

Arquette beat four other equally-deserving nominees for her performance as a struggling single mother in Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater (Before Sunset, Before Midnight and Before Sunrise, etc.), which depicts the story of a boy growing up, shot within a 12-year period using the same actors. In her acceptance speech, Arquette (who revealed that what she wore was a gown designed by her childhood friend and not, unlike other Oscar attendees, loaned from name designers) batted for women’s rights.

Quote-unquote: To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.

It’s interesting to note that Arquette started her own charity project called GiveLove which helps provide victims of the Haitian earthquake with sustainable housing and assists in rebuilding communities. According to reports, Arquette decided to put up the program after she saw first-hand the destruction caused by the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

Arquette hails from a family steeped in showbiz. Her grandfather is comedian Cliff Arquette (famous for his TV character Charlie Weaver) and her siblings (Rosanna, Alexis, Richmond and David) are all actors.

As a TV actress, Arquette has received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2005 for her performance as Allison Dubois for seven seasons in the TV series Medium, plus nominations for the same role from the Emmys, Golden Globe and SAG Awards.

Arquette is starring in CSI: Cyber, which premiered on AXN last March 5, airing every Thursday at 10 p.m., as Special Agent Avery Ryan, the female leader of a team of tech-savvy young men monitoring cyber crimes.

The following phone Conversation was done two weeks before Arquette won at the Oscars. The 10-minute interview revolved exclusively around CSI: Cyber.

What is your take on social media being used for evil purposes like what is tackled in CSI?

“It’s pretty terrifying. I mean if you look at war being launched on social media. It’s scary, isn’t it? Imagine what devices they are capable of using. That’s part of the reason I wanted to do the show because I feel like we all have technology in our lives but we really don’t understand what’s going on with it, or what it’s capable of. And I thought I am really interested in learning that. Every time I get a script for CSI, it’s pretty terrifying when I read it.”

CSI: Cyber is actually the first CSI spin-off to feature a woman as its leader. It must be really exciting to lead a team of guys.

“It is. It’s very exciting, especially at my age, frankly. I think that’s part of also what’s interesting about it to me, you know. Often, we usually still see male leading the law enforcement and what’s interesting also in our CSI:  Cyber is that a lot of our team are very young because young people are much more comfortable with technology than older people. It’s an interesting mixture of youth and older people coming together to solve this new technology crime.”

How tech-savvy are you? How attached are you to your gadget, if you have any?

“No, I’m not that attached to them. I’m not very tech-savvy. But as an actor, what’s interesting is to play somebody or something that you are not. Although I’m not tech-savvy, I am a little concerned about technology. It’s funny because a lot of people on our show really love technology so it’s interesting to talk to them.”

What do you think about cyber crime itself?

Arquette as the struggling single mother in Boyhood, a moving drama about a boy growing up, shot by director Richard Linklater within a 12-year period using same actors

“Well, as I’ve said, it’s pretty scary. Every time I read one of these scripts, it’s a bit shocking. I think there is so much cyber crime happening now. The insurance company is getting hacked, the credit card companies, they target school. Sony has been through this. Every time you turn around, there is this new gadget coming out that can record your voice, record you talking in your house. Technology is moving so fast that we can hardly keep track of what it is inventing next.”

Have you talked to psychologist Mary Aiken in preparation for playing your role in CSI? What did you learn from her?

“Well, part of the preparation is old-fashioned psychological profiling which has been around for a long time. It’s funny when she talks about how much of it goes back to…I mean, we’ve been doing that since we were caveman so some of it is just purely instinct. Cyber crimes are not easy to solve. You don’t have a witness. You have to make a profile about the suspect from his digital footprint and his digital fingerprint, what sort of computer language he uses.”

CSI: Cyber is a cop show that involves lots of action and some physical stuff. How are you dealing with all those action stuff? Do you like doing those weapon handling? Are you good at that, at this point?

“Well, I have definitely gotten a lot better. I’m not gonna say that I’m now a professional or anything like that. Luckily, we always have people on the set who were members of the SWAT team or the military or something. People that are extras used to be in the military. So they helped us. Luckily, we have those specialists. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know what the hell to do.

How do you find the balance between edginess and geekiness in your character for the show?

“It’s funny because I’m a female. Sometimes, you know as an actor, I feel like I’m constantly feeling this gender battle. Like we had a director and we were shooting a scene and I was supposed to be questioning the bad guy and he said, ‘Well, you’re being so mean to him right now.’ And I said, ‘You know, you would never say that to a male cop.’ You would never think a male cop thinks he’s mean to him. I think my character feels close and emotionally warm to her team but basically when people go into law enforcement, oftentimes they are very black and white, very good or bad, they don’t always see things in all the gray areas.”

What do you think about technology these days?

“I don’t use it that much. Certainly, a lot of people use it more than I do. It is definitely convenient but I am very cautious of it and especially with this show, I feel like we need to maybe set up different departments in different countries that review technology before it comes out and make sure that it’s really been thought through properly and maybe can’t be used for things with other purposes — you know, like a review board basically to make sure that its devices are safe.”

Based on your experience performing in CSI, what precautionary measures can you impart to your family and friends so that they can be protected from the dangers of social media?

“Hopefully, if you have an e-mail address, you should get dual verification which is a two-step process to verify that it’s you. I guess that’s a good way to start. Like for your credit companies in America. We have three big credit companies. You should keep a lock on your credit companies so that no one can take your social security numbers or anything and open a base account, take out a home loan or get a credit card. Those are couple of good things to start with.”

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