Who Told Patricia Arquette to Straighten Her Teeth?

ABC/Rick Rowell(NEW YORK) — Oscar winner Patricia Arquette says she was voted “best looking” in ninth grade, but one male classmate shocked her when he suggested that she straighten her teeth so she could pose for Playboy.

“I said, ‘Why would I want to be in Playboy?'” Arquette recalled in an interview with People magazine. “I just didn’t want to look perfect. I didn’t want to have to change myself to be attractive. I didn’t think that was my responsibility.”

Arquette admitted it wasn’t just her classmates who made the suggestion. Her parents even told her to straighten her teeth. The actress said she refused because “it didn’t feel like it would fit who I was inside.”

The Boyhood star added that she’s continually frustrated in Hollywood because actresses are always asked about their appearance on the big screen, especially when it comes to aging.

“I’ve had so many of these conversations in my life…what I look like on film, what I don’t look like on film. What are we supposed to look like? Men are not having these conversations,” Arquette explained.

“It’s like we’re trapped in wet wool or something. I just want to be free of it so we can move to the next level as equals. Not that I don’t love being a woman, not that I don’t love the differences between men and women,” she clarified. “I just mean, as an actor — why is this a conversation? Why is aging a conversation? It’s a one-sided conversation because it’s only ever had by women.”