While some of us often dream of labyrinthine houses and ’80s horror icons who invite you to skateboard with them down at the local park (me), Rosanna Arquette is having night fantasies about starring in a sequel to Susan Seidelman’s 1985 comedic drama Desperately Seeking Susan. Arquette played Roberta Glass in the film alongside Madonna as Susan, with Aidan Quinn playing Dez. The cult classic focuses on a bored New Jersey suburban homemaker whose fascination with a free-spirited woman she has read about in the personal columns leads to her getting mistaken for the woman herself. While discussing the film on Anna Smith’s Girls On Film Podcast, Arquette said she often thinks about what happened to the film’s lookalike duo.
“I always had a fantasy about what happened to them?” Arquette said about the character she plays in the movie alongside Madonna, who made her acting debut in the film. “Who are they now? It would be so great to make that movie. And see where everybody ends up. Do Dez [Aidan Quinn’s character] and her stay together? What happens to them?”
Arquette speaks highly of the filming experience for Desperately Seeking Susan. Still, she acknowledges some brief “moments of tension” on the set as Seidelman navigated ways to communicate with her cast. Desperately Seeking Susan was Seidelman’s second feature, so it’s possible she was still finding her footing in the filming environment.
“I remember specifically her saying ‘That Sucked.’ It was harmful to me at that time because I didn’t know where it was coming from,” Arquette explained about working under Seidelman.
“But it was just her inexperience and my hyper-sensitivity. I had just come off from working with Martin Scorsese on After Hours. He was the ultimate director of life and loved his actors and would nurture them… you don’t talk to actors that way because you can get more out of them if you don’t do that.”
Arquette put a bow on the conversation and said, “She [Seidelman] didn’t know that at the time. Since then, I have understood her and think she understands me. And that’s growing up in life.”
Everyone matures at different rates. I can’t begin to imagine the mental price directors pay for spearheading a star-studded project and think it’s perfectly normal for Seidelman to experience growing pains. Thankfully, Arquette still thinks of the experience fondly, and the thought of a Desperately Seeking Susan sequel is a fun concept to contemplate. I recall the film playing on a loop in my house back in the day, thanks to my sister’s obsession with Madonna. I have no doubt others would like to see another film focusing on Roberta and Susan as they continue their lives.
Would you watch a Desperately Seeking Susan sequel? Let us know in the comments section below.