Through its seven-season run, Medium attracted audiences with its compelling supernatural storytelling mixed with the realistic portrayal of a working-class mother. Patricia Arquette helped bring her role of Allison DuBois to life with her incredible performance and dedication to the series.

This commitment would eventually lead to her winning her first Emmy for outstanding lead actress in 2005 for her work on Medium. Right after winning her award, Arquette was given some criticism on how to portray her character by one of the showrunners of the series.

"I had an argument with one of the producers on Medium, who told me I should lose weight. I was like, ‘This lady is a mother, she’s married, she’s got three kids. No.'" said Arquette.

Arquette has been a lifelong feminist advocate and was determined to approach playing DuBois in a realistic manner.

Prior to working on Medium, she had made a name for herself on the big screen with such films as Stigmata and True Romance. In the early 2000s, moving from film to television was seen as a step back in your career in Hollywood. Despite this, Arquette took the jump to take her A-list movie talents to entertain thousands of people on a weekly basis.

"On True Romance, Tony Scott never made me feel like that. What are you saying? That every married woman has to look a certain way? [My character] has three kids. It’s about a marriage, not a modeling competition.’”

Hollywood has maintained tight control over how people look on both television and film throughout its history. Outspoken advocates against these norms like Arquette show a glimpse into a hopeful future of acceptance of all body types.