Patricia Arquette Explains ‘Surprising’ Oscars Speech Backlash

Patricia Arquette received backlash for her Oscars acceptance speech about wage equality for women, and now the actress is responding to the haters.

“There’s always going to be [haters] and I think people didn’t really think of what I was saying clearly and understand and look at the impact,” she told Access Hollywood on Friday night at the 3rd Annual Noble Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. “I think I was a little bit [surprised]. I mean, it’s crazy that we don’t, that women don’t have equal pay in America.”

The actress explained to Access that she became especially passionate about this issue while filming her Oscar-winning performance in “Boyhood” over the course of 12 years.

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“I won an Academy Award for a character who was a single mother who had to move her kids and go back to school and worry about child care and she still would have done those things, possibly, maybe not as many moves, but why should she have had to work harder?” she explained to Access. “Every day a woman is robbed of her fair share for the same job. She’s not getting that money in her retirement. She can’t pay for her child care. She can’t help her kids go to college. I mean, all over the world, the more we support women, it trickles down to the kids. It will build our economy. It will build our world.”

Patricia has brother David in her corner, supporting her on this hot topic issue and celebrating her Oscars win for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

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“We were all just so proud of Patricia. She’s such an incredibly, talented person and she’s got the biggest, philanthropist heart of anyone I know,” he told Access at the Noble Awards. “I loved [her Oscars acceptance speech]. She is such a champion for women in general. She really does believe in equality for everyone and I thought it was a great platform for her to speak her mind and far past due.”

David was home with his 10-month old son Charlie when Patricia won Oscar gold, but he said the whole family was rooting her on.

“I was out at the beach. We had the baby, but he was clapping. He really loved watching. It was so cute,” he said. “And we filmed ourselves to send her [because] she wanted to see our reactions.”

Patricia – along with siblings Alexis and Richmond – presented David with a Noble Award on Friday for his charitable work with Feeding America.

Paige Feigenbaum

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