Stream-of-Talking With the ‘Fishes’ Guy

The lunchtime scene at Planet Hollywood here is a generous wedge of the American vacation dream: a chicken on every plate, a camera around every neck. A waitress bustles, the ambience hustles. A group of teenagers in khaki-colored “I Want to Lose” T-shirts could in fact be a diet cult, waiting for a lo-cal comet. But everyone is waiting for stars.

And the stars du jour, ladies and germs--making a special presentation from the Sony Pictures Classics release “Dream With the Fishes”--are director Finn Taylor (huh? vacationers ask), Cathy Moriarty (yeah, isn’t she . . .) and David Arquette (oh cool, he’s in “Scream”).

Please try to see the film, Arquette tells the restaurant, with all the fibrous texture of a spring roll. Having presented a plot-pivotal pair of binoculars to the restaurant chain’s collection of movie stuff, he adds, if you want . . . if you’re old enough. . . .

But Arquette--yes, of those Arquettes, sisters Rosanna and Patricia, brothers Alexis and Richmond and comedian granddad Cliff (Charley Weaver)--is only perpetrating an indie film image, not dissing the film. He loves the film. Sure, pushing a low-budget, black comedy in Planet Hollywood--shrine to Ahnuld, Bruce, Demi, Sly--is a tad incongruous. But not impossible.

That’s the beauty of independent film, that they get bought by studios and get promoted (and) more people get to see it, he says. Indonesian cigarette between painted nails, he sips a pinkish suspension from a tumbler. “You know, publicity is sort of ridiculous in its blatant, egotistical nature. It’s all about getting a product out there. I’ve sort of compromised a lot of my sort of beliefs . . . but I will do mostly anything to get this movie off the ground.”

This movie, the first feature by director-writer Taylor, has ridden a wave of film festivals into a national release. And it puts the 25-year-old Arquette--who was the comic lawman in “Scream,” played a male hustler twice (in “johns” and “Where the Day Takes You”) and was the bad guy in “Wild Bill”--onto a whole new level of acting and, perchance, exposure.

His suicidal Terry in “Fishes” is a Prufrockian voyeur, brought out of his shell by the charismatic petty criminal Nick (Brad Hunt), who keeps Terry from jumping off a bridge but has a terminal disease himself. They strike a deal: If Terry will help Nick fulfill his unfulfilled fantasies--which include taking LSD in public, robbing a bank and bowling naked--Nick will pay Terry back by killing him.

In its exploration of unorthodox relationships and character, “Dream With the Fishes” recalls some American films of the ‘70s--a “Scarecrow,” for instance, in which the actors seemed to be going through as much as their characters. For Arquette, every role seems to be a psychic wrestling match, the film business itself a war for his soul.

“I always sort of get involved in these movies that have these sort of obscure male relationships,” says Arquette, whose inflection is always on the upswing. “I don’t think it’s on purpose, it just sort of happens? I don’t look at it as a bad thing? I think it’s a good thing; it allows me to explore my acting as far as like, I don’t know, males being close.”

He grew up in Hollywood--not “Hollywood,” he stresses--doing graffiti art, hanging out with gangsters. “But I’m all over that stuff. It’s good, like there’s a certain amount of bonding, they really care about each other, they’re looking for something to cling to. But they do it in a destructive way. Y’know, it’s like a dead-end. I try not to be violent.”

Of “Fishes,” he can trot out quotes-to-order: “I fell in love with the story. I just really wanted to be a part of it.” And then he can take a hard left turn.

“I had all these weird experiences as a kid, with guys flashing me and stuff,” he says. “Just growing up with the strangers-who-are-going-to-offer-you-candy thing. I don’t know. I like to talk about that kind of stuff, ‘cause it takes the power away from it, you know?”

In that vein, he likes the fact that “Fishes” makes suicide look ridiculous. Terry, after all, is no romantic hero; Nick, for his part, really wants to live. Arquette is concerned about the power of the image, even if he doesn’t know how to rein it in. Or if he should.

“After ‘Scream II,’ I’m doing . . . ‘Darby Crash,’ which is about the lead singer of this L.A. punk band the Germs. He ended up killing himself. But I want to make sure it doesn’t glamorize it at all, that it makes the point that he sort of wasted his life. . . .

“Y’know, you play this supercool character--he’s gay but he is really cool--and I don’t know, there’s a fine line you have to walk with these things. You have to make sure your character’s on your side about it. . . .

“Yeah,” he continues, “a movie is a powerful image that projects people much larger than they are in real life and glorifies them. But if you do it with the right message involved, I think it’s good. On the other hand I think, ‘I’m not a preacher, I’m not here to help anybody.’ I do a lot of parts that deal with the emotions I’m involved with in my life. I don’t express myself a lot in my life, but in my characters [I] do. . . . It’s a real convoluted way of dealing with reality. But it is a way of sort of dealing with it . . . capturing it,” he stops, thinks, smiles. “For a product.”

And David Arquette exits, laughing.