Patricia Arquette in Severance.
Patricia Arquette isn’t holding back when it comes to Donald Trump’s second presidency. In a recent interview with The Guardian, the Severance star expressed her deep concern over the political landscape in the U.S., particularly the attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and the arts.
“It’s terrifying,” she said, referring to Trump’s crackdown on transgender rights, an issue that is deeply personal to her. Arquette’s late sister, Alexis Arquette, was a transgender actress and activist who spent years fighting for equality before her passing in 2016. “The whole thing is dehumanising, nightmarish. Women’s rights are also on the chopping block, state after state. It just really breaks my heart.”
“Women’s rights are also on the chopping block, state after state. It just really breaks my heart.”
Beyond policy, Arquette sees a broader cultural shift under Trump’s influence, particularly in the arts. As The Guardian noted, Trump recently purged the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one of the most prestigious institutions in Washington, D.C., and replaced its leadership. He then declared that the centre was “not going to be woke.”
Arquette worries this signals a broader effort to suppress diverse voices in storytelling. “For maybe the last 10 years, there was a serious movement for inclusivity and diversity, and what are the stories of these artists?” she told The Guardian. “It makes the arts richer.”
Her concerns tie into the dystopian themes of Severance, where corporate control and manipulation are central to the plot. “There’s a lot of trickery and deception,” she said, noting how people are increasingly “willing to believe lies” to justify harmful actions.
Despite her fears about the future, Arquette isn’t giving up. Whether through activism or storytelling, she remains committed to pushing back against oppression. “You never know how anything’s going to be,” she said. “You just try to make something good.”
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