Mr. Moviefone:  Hello and welcome to America Online Moviefone live. I am your host, Mr. Moviefone. I'm joined by Tina Malave. We're here with David Arquette. God knows you need as much help as you can get with David Arquette. How about your movie?

David Arquette:  Good.

Mr. Moviefone:  It did pretty well this weekend.

David Arquette:  Sure did. It was neat for people. I'm thankful.

Mr. Moviefone:  We're talking about "See Spot Run" that opened this weekend, and you actually beat Anthony Hopkins at the box office this weekend. And you know, nobody thought that was going to happen. So congratulations.

David Arquette:  Thank you.

Mr. Moviefone:  Tell us about "See Spot Run." What's the movie about?
David Arquette:  I play a mailman who was raised by the government, who's an orphan, and now he works for the government, and he has a crush on this girl that lives down the hall from him, and she's got a kid. She's going out of town, so I have to take care of the kid for like 10 minutes. And then she like gets into like a "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" kind of thing where she can't come back home. Then this dog shows up that's being chased by the mob. He's sort of a secret agent.

Mr. Moviefone:  Sure, the secret agent dog. We're here to take questions from your fans out there. They've been wanting to ask you a few things. Our first one is from Jnelon55:  Hi... first, I'd like to ask how you're doing.

David Arquette:  Fine. Thank you.

Mr. Moviefone:  Second, what was it like working with the dog on the set of "See Spot Run"? Was it difficult?

David Arquette:  No, it wasn't so difficult. We were really lucky and we got this super well-trained dog named Bob. He was just super smart. He would do amazing things. They could have him stop wagging his tail at times. Not if he got excited, though. But you know, he could crawl, he could just do all kinds of stuff. He always hit his mark. It was actually a lot easier -- I've worked with other animals, and it's crazy.

Tina Malave:  You did probably the hardest thing, you worked with not only a dog, a kid and mob characters, and you still managed to come out like the one on top. I was watching the trailer. It was hysterical. We're going to Nick98luva2:  Hey, David, I just saw "See Spot Run" yesterday. I loved it. How was it working with Leslie Bibb?

David Arquette:  It was incredible. She's really talented and a very smart actress. She's just really cool. I heard from another reporter or something that she wasn't really -- she was a little nervous about doing a comedy, and she just sort of embraced it and had fun with it. Movies like this you can't take too seriously. You just sort of go with it. Except for the mob part with the dog.

Mr. Moviefone:  Yeah, that's serious business.

David Arquette:  Yeah. That's trouble.

Tina Malave:  You got to watch the mob. Next question:  What was your first acting job, and did you act in high school?

David Arquette:  My first acting job was a Nestea commercial. I was found at some dance club with my friends. We were really young, I don't know, like 13 or something. I was like an extra in the Nestea commercial. And I did act in high school. I was actually, when I was around 13 or something, I was not into it, you know, not into acting. My sister was really famous at the time. I saw how people treated you, and it was like a turnoff to me. I was like running around town, doing graffiti and break dancing, all this silly stuff.
So I was like, aw, forget it. That's not for me. Then some girls came up to me and said we're looking for someone to do the school play. I got to ride a motorcycle through the auditorium. I was like, yeah. I went up on stage and I had to sing. I was all nervous and it was terrible. My friends were in the back laughing at me. But then through getting involved with the -- I got the part, and through getting involved with the drama department at school, it really sort of had me focus my energy and kind of stop messing around so much and kind of got my priorities straight.

Mr. Moviefone:  By your career, you can tell you've stopped messing around, and you're a very serious actor.

Tina Malave:  We're going to Imafreak:  Who is your favorite WCW wrestler? Any WWF favorites?

David Arquette:  This is interesting, because I recently was WCW Heavyweight Champ of the World for two weeks.

Mr. Moviefone:  I don't understand how that happened.

David Arquette:  I was just in the right place at the right time, really, you know. I'm a lucky guy. No.

Mr. Moviefone:  How did it happen? How did you end up doing the wrestling?

David Arquette:  I did a movie, "Ready to Rumble," and got to know all the wrestlers. I went on one show to promote it. They said, can you come back tomorrow? I went back and they were like, okay, listen, you have to commit to a couple weeks. There's a match that's going to happen. They kind of know things beforehand.

Mr. Moviefone:  They know things?

David Arquette:  They know things. I was the toughest guy for that two weeks.

Tina Malave:  Did you come away with any favorites from that?

David Arquette:  Yeah. My favorites? Let me see. Diamond Dallas Page is a great guy. But I turned bad against him. Really, it's a cutthroat business. I had to hook my buddy Jeff Jarrett up, another one of my favorites. Goldberg, as well. I like a lot of the guys in WWF, you know, Stone Cold and Mankind, you know, Mick Foley. The KD Undertaker.

Tina Malave:  You're a fan, then?

David Arquette:  It's great. And Sugar Shane, Hill.

Mr. Moviefone:  All of them. Let's take another question, from Pastorbillower. I have no idea what that means. I don't want to ask. You come from an acting family. Did you always want to be a performer?

David Arquette:  Not in the section of time I talked about earlier. When I was younger, we used to do little skits and stuff, you know, growing up, playing improvisational games. My dad taught improv, and I studied with him, and my mom taught acting classes. I did. It was sort of something we were really sort of raised with.

Tina Malave:  You mentioned your family. WebberBob67 says:  Were you ever jealous of your sister's success?

David Arquette:  Not really jealous, because at that time it was more like I didn't like the way people were treating me because of it. But no, I'm not really the jealous type. I mean I guess romantically I am, but no.

Mr. Moviefone:  Is that true?

David Arquette:  Sometimes, a little bit. You know, certain things, I guess like -- just a very mild...

Mr. Moviefone:  Give us an example.

David Arquette:  Seeing love scenes. I don't really get too freaked out, so I'm not like super jealous guy. I used to be. But I sort of dealt with that.

Mr. Moviefone:  Let's take another one, from Madeline33:  What was it like growing up on a commune? Are you a vegetarian?

David Arquette:  No, I'm not a vegetarian. Although, sometimes I'm a guilty meat-eater. It was great growing up on a commune. I was born in Virginia, in this like spiritual commune. My parents were hippies and stuff. They were sort of following this guy's spiritual philosophies. Then his whole religion, or not really a religion, any religion can be a part of it, and it's a pretty cool philosophy. Just sort of getting close to all gods and whatever. It's a little too deep to go into.

Mr. Moviefone:  All gods and whatever. That's what [I am] too, man.

David Arquette:  All the good stuff. You know what I mean? It's like the bad and good. Be good. And he showed up in Virginia where this commune was, and he came there, he's like, what are you doing here? All these people were living there. They're like, we're, you know, practicing spirituality. He's like, but yes, you have to go out into the world. If you're a carpenter, you have to go where carpenters live. If you're an actor, you must go where actors live. So we moved.
Tina Malave:  All right. A question from Sweetiegirl2390:  Is your character from "See Spot Run" different from your real self?

David Arquette:  Yes. I'd say so. Although, you know, I think of myself as in trouble all the time.

Mr. Moviefone:  What's your character like in that movie?

David Arquette:  He's a little irresponsible and kind of messy, you know.

Mr. Moviefone:  He's carrying a lot of weaponry, I notice.

David Arquette:  Yeah, yeah, he's got like a squirt gun and like a slingshot. Not really dangerous weaponry. He also has like a little pocket fisherman with like a chicken bone on it, because he's got all these little -- he's got one of those key holders with the whistle on it.

Mr. Moviefone:  Did you get to keep any of that stuff?

David Arquette:  No, I didn't.

Mr. Moviefone:  This is AOL Moviefone live with David Arquette, talking about his new movie, "See Spot Run," opened in theaters Friday. The second most popular movie in America. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Another question. Askalaterator asking:  Do you have a dog of your own?

David Arquette:  Three dogs. A Bernese mountain dog, a Border collie and a
shepherd mix. Mack, Rag and Pela.

Mr. Moviefone:  Do they get along?

David Arquette:  Mack's a little freaky. He kind of like -- I think he's like a little human, like somewhere there's like a little bit of a human gene. But it's like of a grumpy old man. He's our grumpy old human dog. So he just likes to play ball and is like obsessed. He's a Border collie, so he'll hide under this thing, you know, and get really crouched if he sees like a kid walking down -- running down the park. He gets all into like some kind of hunting mode. And we have -- he's like a [drag] to bring to parks and stuff, but he's a great dog. He's the one who hangs out with me all the time, play catch, and he's always following me into my office.

Mr. Moviefone:  So you're a dog lover?

David Arquette:  Yeah.

Mr. Moviefone:  The character in the movie is not like you. You love dogs?

David Arquette:  The dog is incredible in the movie. There's one, this dog that's on "Frasier" and "My Dog Skip," he's a famous dog. One time I was on an airplane with the dog. He sat in a first-class seat next to me. I was like, that's his seat, and they were like, yeah. One time they lost him. So now in all of his contracts, he has to fly first class. But he doesn't have to wear a seat belt. I was like, wait.

Tina Malave:  Excellent. We're going to Underwater:  Is being famous ever tiresome? I read a story on the Web about how you kept ordering fortune cookies until you got one you liked. Was that true, first of all?

David Arquette:  No, it isn't.

Mr. Moviefone:  What a wacky story.

David Arquette:  I don't eat cookies, really.

Mr. Moviefone:  You mentioned earlier that you didn't like kind of how the business was, people were treating you, maybe. What about that didn't you like?

David Arquette:  Well, I mean, there's definite benefits about it. I mean, it's ridiculous the kind of like stuff that you do get benefits on, like let into restaurants, free clothes. I try not -- these weren't free, actually. You know, I try not to take too much of that, because it's kind of -- I don't know, it's weird. A lot of people in the celebrity world like borrow clothes and they wear them to premieres, then they send them back. I think nobody can afford that many clothes. Kids out there trying to keep up, it's just going
to break anybody.

Mr. Moviefone:  Can you live a regular life and not be recognized? Or are you so popular, because you've done a lot of movies. I'm looking at the list from "3000 Miles to Graceland" -- you've got two movies out now. Can you be yourself, or are you aware of people around you?

David Arquette:  Most of the time. With my wife, she always get recognized, and it gets into a different level of fame she has. It's a little strange. But for the most part, we're just normal people. So we go around and, you know, I love meeting people and signing autographs and being nice. As long as they're cordial and everything, I'm sort of like -- if people are mean, I hate it when people are. It's just like, you know, give me a break.

Mr. Moviefone:  I hate mean, jerky people. Let's take another question for David Arquette:  How did you and Courtney meet?

David Arquette:  Well, Courteney is spelled with an e. How did we meet? We met for the first time at Wes Craven's house at a little mixer. It was before we actually started filming "Scream." I was all like cocky guy. Coming in, "Hey. I heard a lot about you." She was like, "Yeah, I heard a lot about you, too." We kind of like started like sparring, as far as when we first met. It was kind of like this little "Who does he think he is?" So I sort of, you know, stuck with it. I faced a lot of rejection for a long time. You know, call her. Even though she says leave her alone, call her. I'm kidding.

Mr. Moviefone:  Do you find you're more famous for your movie roles or --

David Arquette:  For my commercials?

Mr. Moviefone:  I was saying to you earlier, you're the only other phone guy I know that's maybe as ridiculous as I am, right? Do people come up to you all the time? I bet they love that character.

David Arquette:  No, I'm more ridiculous.

Mr. Moviefone:  I finally met somebody.

David Arquette:  No, I'm probably, in America, definitely, you know, famous for that phone commercial, and "Scream." But I'm not doing the phone commercials anymore.

Mr. Moviefone:  Had enough of that?

David Arquette:  A little bit. A little too much of people coming up and tapping my chest. Hey, Courteney, we love your show, we love your show. Hey, go phone guy. The drunk guy is like, Hey, Courteney.

Tina Malave:  Do people always expect you to be that up every time they see you?

David Arquette:  Yeah, yeah. Can I have another cup of coffee, please?

Tina Malave:  Okay. Jimmy2x says:  I brought my kids to see your movie. They loved it. Any funny bloopers with the animals that didn't make it into the movie?

David Arquette:  Oh, man. Not really. I mean, there was a bunch of stuff that didn't make it into the movie, but it was more like weird stuff. Like this one dog like was running, this dirty dog, and I spray the ground, then he slipped and bumps into the gate. It looked painful, but the gate was made out of plastic or rubber. So it wasn't painful. But when people saw it, it was. There was one time I was running with the kid and I dropped him.

Tina Malave:  Oh, no.

David Arquette:  I was like, oh, God, I dropped him. I felt like such a moron. I was like, "I'm sorry." [phone rings]

Mr. Moviefone:  Ask them to hold on.

David Arquette:  Can you hold, please? I'm talking to AOL. Who's this? Hey, Leslie.

Mr. Live Guy:  His cell phone just rang.

David Arquette:  Can I call you back?

Mr. Moviefone:  This is a first. First time this has ever happened. We're talking about "See Spot Run." And the slogans for the movie -- It's do-do or die, is what the slogan is. Is there a lot of poo humor go this movie, David?

David Arquette:  Yeah. There's a lot of poo humor. I think I pitched it. I was like, you know, I'm the last person to push, you know, potty humor. Actually, I'm not. My dad used to walk around with one of those fart machines before they became famous. Not famous. But they have these little machines that were plastic. They're like make your own. They're not like cheesy. The real sounds. My dad used to walk around with those all the time.

Tina Malave:  Thanksgiving must have been a blast at your house.

David Arquette:  Yeah. The teacher would be like, I don't think David is achieving. My dad's like...

Mr. Moviefone:  You might want to watch his diet at home.

David Arquette:  Exactly.

Mr. Moviefone:  Schnabwinter says:  Is there nudity in this movie? Any nakedness?

David Arquette:  The dogs, because they don't wear clothes. It's a kids movie. No nudity at all.

Tina Malave:  Would you ever do a nude movie?

David Arquette:  Would I do nudity? Only if it was something serious, for some reason.

Mr. Moviefone:  Speaking of serious, you know, you are kind of known for clowning around, anything coming up where you -- would you like to do some really serious stuff?

David Arquette:  Actually, I had a neat opportunity to do a movie recently called "The Grey Zone." It's set in Auschwitz. It's completely different, and there's no humor at all. It was intense. It was dark. It was darker than a lot of those movies. It just goes sort of where a lot of those movies sort of stopped.

Mr. Moviefone:  Speaking of your upcoming movie, MariesitterMr says -- these names are tough. It's not that I'm illiterate. Your upcoming film The Grey Zone sounds pretty dark. Was that a challenge for you?

David Arquette:  Yeah, it really was. It was first a -- challenging in convincing the director to hire the phone guy. But he was really cool. I worked with him before. He's an actor. His name's Tim Blake Nelson. But he's also a great director, and really, I wanted to audition a couple times, and he had faith in me to let me do it. It was an extreme challenge. Everything about that movie was difficult. We filmed it in Bulgaria for two months, two and a half months, and it was wild.

Tina Malave:  A whole new satisfaction doing that kind of movie, though?

David Arquette:  Yeah, yeah, completely. You definitely feel, yeah, that it was important. There's an importance to entertaining people, too, but...

Mr. Moviefone:  There's an importance to knowing your long distance.

David Arquette:  And knowing what time the movies are coming out.

Mr. Moviefone:  You and me, man, we could do a movie together. It would be a bad one.

Tina Malave:  Sawyer:  Congrats on being number two. Did you see the movie in the theater over the weekend?

David Arquette:  No, I didn't.

Tina Malave:  Do you ever do that, go to the theater to see what the reaction is?

David Arquette:  I think I did to one of the "Screams."

Mr. Moviefone:  You haven't been to the movies in a while, have you?

David Arquette:  I haven't been to a movie recently.
Mr. Moviefone:  Do you not go to the theater to see movies? Have you got a big theater at home?

David Arquette:  No, not a big theater or anything. But I haven't been to a movie very recently.

Mr. Moviefone:  Wow.

David Arquette:  It's a little weird, I guess. March, you should get out more.

Mr. Moviefone:  Today's remaining show times are -- JillyJilly asking:  Are the stories of the fireworks going off when you proposed to Courteney true? That's so romantic. What story?

David Arquette:  We were in Panama City, Florida. Her family lives down there. I planned to propose to her. I rented a barge with fireworks. We went out on the beach. Her family was there. My brother was there. I actually had the fireworks going. It was good, though. I love fireworks, so I was kind of just looking for an excuse to blow off fireworks. Yeah, burn them down, whoo! No. She's -- I learned she's not so into fireworks.

Tina Malave:  That's nice.

David Arquette:  Nice?

Mr. Moviefone:  Are you a romantic guy?

David Arquette:  Somewhat, yeah. I am, I guess.

Mr. Moviefone:  I'm feeling the love sitting right here. So you know.

David Arquette:  Hey, I was just wondering. When you do the "See Spot Run" recording, could you just mentally do some little subliminal like, Go see See Spot Run. See See Spot Run."

Mr. Moviefone:  Go see "See Spot Run." This is a terrific movie. Take the whole family. See "See Spot Run." The nice thing is I don't have to tell people to go see it. People are going to see it. This movie did great this weekend. It will have a great second weekend because there's nothing else like it out there. You got a good thing going.

Tina Malave:  You just didn't want to say this name. Lovdollardiaz:  I know you did an appearance on "Friends." Any more plans in the future?

David Arquette:  That's love the ladies.

Tina Malave:  I had the Spanish pronunciation.

Mr. Moviefone:  What was the question?

Tina Malave:  I don't remember. You did an episode of "Friends." Will you do another one?

David Arquette:  I'd love to do another episode of "Friends." That would be really awesome. But they don't want me.

Mr. Moviefone:  I don't think so.

David Arquette:  Just kidding. I did an episode. It was kind of funky.

Mr. Moviefone:  Really? Why?

David Arquette:  It was right after "Scream." I didn't know anybody there. I barely knew Courteney.

Mr. Moviefone:  Were they nasty to you?

David Arquette:  They made me cut my hair off. They're like notorious for giving people haircuts.

Mr. Moviefone:  You show up and they give you a haircut?

Tina Malave:  No one knew that "Friends."

David Arquette:  A little gossip.

Mr. Moviefone:  Oklahoma -- I swear --

Tina Malave:  Oklahomaslice?

Mr. Moviefone:  Oklahomaslice:  Dude, are you into clowns?

David Arquette:  I am. I used to want to be a clown when I was a kid. My dad would come as Butter the Clown to birthday parties. My dad passed away, actually.

Mr. Moviefone:  Sorry about that. Where is the rest of your family?

David Arquette:  All in LA.

Mr. Moviefone:  Really? Everybody?

David Arquette:  Yeah.

Tina Malave:  Excellent.  Let's go to Hendersonbabe -- I can relate. Do you and John Lithgow ever get into fistfights over which collect calling service is the best?

Mr. Moviefone:  You're so much more famous than he is over the calling thing.

David Arquette:  That was a long time ago. I think it was like a 10-10-220 kind of thing.

Mr. Moviefone:  That's no 1-800-ATT.

David Arquette:  I love that guy. He's a great actor.

Mr. Moviefone:  Next question:  I saw Ear 2000 at the Dragonfly a while back. Are you guys still together? You're in a band, right?

David Arquette:  I was. I'm sort of not doing that right now. We're kind of not doing it.

Mr. Moviefone:  The band broke up?

David Arquette:  Not officially. We're all still buddies. I just kind of -- kind of wanted to focus on this. The band, I'm not a musician, so I sang and wrote lyrics and experimented with music as far as mixing it, just trying to express myself that way. That's pretty much what I enjoyed from it, so it's not something I'm really serious about.

Mr. Moviefone:  No Dogstar?

David Arquette:  Dogstar is cool.

Mr. Moviefone:  I was talking about Keanu. You got the movies, the band. He said, yeah, the band, whatever. I said, what are you talking about, man, you're doing everything in the world anybody would want to do. He was very nonchalant.

David Arquette:  It's neat because you get a chance to perform in front of people. It's more like doing a play or musical or something. I got to do "Rocky Horror Show" in LA a little while ago. That was awesome. Because that's like rock 'n roll and acting, and you're in front of people and freaking them out.

Mr. Moviefone:  No better combination than that. Trackraptor says:  Would you go on a reality show? And do you watch them? Are you a "Survivor" fan?

David Arquette:  I've seen it a few times. But I prefer "Friends."

Tina Malave:  Good answer.

David Arquette:  I don't know. I wouldn't go on one, actually. They're way too long. It's hard enough doing a movie for two months. Not that it's hard doing a movie, because no matter what anybody says about acting, it's like an incredible job. You get grossly overpaid and just to be able to get paid for doing something you love, you know, entertaining people, even though there's baloney that comes with it, it's a great deal.

Mr. Moviefone:  We like watching you.

David Arquette:  Thank you.

Mr. Moviefone:  One last question. Spunky25098 says:  What are we going to see from you? You got "See Spot Run" and a hit movie in theaters.

David Arquette:  I did a movie recently, "Arac Attack," that will be out in a year or so, attack of giant spiders in a small town. It was fun because it was just crazy.

Mr. Moviefone:  He's got the life. Unbelievable. This is AOL Moviefone live. I'm here with Tina Malave talking about David Arquette. The movie is "See Spot Run," in theaters right now. Check that out. It's been great having you.

David Arquette:  It was fun. I loved it.

Mr. Moviefone:  Thanks for giving us the questions. Be sure and check out "See Spot Run." How? Call Moviefone or go to Moviefone.com, get your show times and tickets. We loved having you. Thanks for coming in.

David Arquette:  Thank you, man.

Mr. Moviefone:  Thanks a lot.

Copyright 2001 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Portions of this transcript may be edited by AOL to correct spelling, punctuation and/or remove any material that violates AOL's Terms of Service
1