On her way to becoming an icon of "white trash"? Patricia Arquette talks about eroticism, her double role in "Lost Highway" and her husband Nicolas Cage

Focus: Being chased by  Freddy Krueger in your screen debut didn`t scare you off from being an actress?

Arquette: On the contrary! I had just finished drama school with my head full with snobbish ideas. Being cast in a horror movie was much more difficult than I had expected: running around screaming for no reason at all. At least I learned a lot about technique: paying attention to the marks on the floor while trying to escape Freddy.

Focus: When did you first meet Nicolas Cage?

Arquette: That was about ten years ago. A friend of his absolutely wanted to meet me, and Nicolas joined him "by chance". His friend suddenly said: "I love you!", and Nicolas immediately said: "No, I love you and I will marry you." I dated him for a while, we were almost still children then, I  was 19 and he was 23, it felt like being in a fairy tale. Then it stopped - until our ways crossed again at the same coffeeshop in the middle of the night seven years later. When he called the next day to ask me to marry him, I just said "yes".

Focus: He likes to present himself as "the wild one"...

Arquette: Nicolas is intelligent and honest, calm and nervous at the same time, yet so noble and chivalrous as if he were from a different era. But everyone thinks he`s crazy because of his strange habits:  his medieval castle, the framed bugs above his bed and so on. He`s much more normal on the inside than me.

Focus: Does you double role in "Lost Highway" represent a kind of male fantasy?

Arquette: Yes, I`ve met a couple of men hating women without knowing it. Fred Madison thinks, he loves women, but his love is rather a sick obsession. He`s haunted by terrible fantasies about Renees vivid sexual past and her suspected unfaithfulness. To him, it becomes so real that he doesn`t talk about about but acts increasingly strange and eventually becomes a murderer.

Focus: So it might be a nightmare?

Arquette: Everyone may have his own interpretation, this is my version: In prison, Fred makes up a daydream in which he embodies  a virile 19 year old mechanic, while his wife  reappears as a voluptuous blonde longing to be saved by him. But even in this dream, the same jealousy returns, he seems to hate her so much that he canīt - symbolically - kill her often enough. There can`t be a happy ending for him!

Focus: You played a callgirl in "True Romance", now you`re cast as a porno actress - are you becoming an icon of "white trash"?

Arquette: I`ve playes mothers,  daughters left behind, boring house wifes, and still the press prefers to regard me as a sex symbol. Each era has its own pin ups. Eroticism has always inspired people. Just take a look at famous paintings, half of them show nude women. People kill because of their desires, and even start wars. That`s nothing new.

Focus: Are there any taboos for you?

Arquette: A lot! The sex scenes in particuliar weren`t easy to play. If you`re married, you don`t want to be touched by anyone else.

Interview: Marcus Rothe