The first question anyone within a ten mile radius of the 2017 Oscar ceremony is being asked is: what did you think of that crazy Moonlight upset? But for Oscar winner Patricia Arquette, the surprising win for that film struck an extremely personal note—leading her to express her disappointment over her sister, actor and trans activist Alexis Arquette, being left out of the ceremony’s In Memoriam tribute.
Arquette told Vanity Fair’s Michelle Collins that she was happy to see Moonlight take the top prize, and she immediately contextualized its win in the current political climate. She was touched, she said, by “this beautiful story about a gay kid in America in a world that doesn’t accept gay people.” But Arquette immediately added, “I’m really bummed. For the in memoriam, they left out our sister Alexis, and she was trans.” Arquette wasn’t the only performer missing from the video segment: Garry Shandling, Robert Vaughn, and more were also conspicuously absent.
Arquette passed away of complications from HIV last September. As Patricia pointed out, she was something of a trailblazer. With 70 acting credits to her name—including The Wedding Singer, Pulp Fiction, Of Mice and Men, and Last Exit to Brooklyn—Alexis Arquette had, according to her sister, “a great career as a male, and came out as a trans woman and lived her life in her truth. . . Her career was cut short, not by her passing, but by her decision to live her truth and her life as a transgender woman. Despite the fact that there are few parts for trans actors, she refused to play roles that were demeaning or stereotypical. She was a vanguard in the fight for understanding and acceptance for all trans people.”
Speaking on Oscar Sunday, Arquette told Vanity Fair: “We’re living in a time right now where trans kids can’t even go to the bathroom in schools and they’re diminished in society. It’s really unfortunate that the Oscars decided they couldn’t show a trans person who was such an important person in this community. Because—trans kids—it could have meant a lot to them.”
VanityFair.com has reached out to the Academy for comment, but has not heard back at this time. The Arquette family, Patricia says, is creating a foundation on trans issues in Alexis’s name.
