Actress Rosanna Arquette, at 25, is this generation's answer to Jane Fonda and Meryl Streep. Aside from such movies as the hugely successful Despertely Seeking Susan, America knows her as the inspiration for Toto's 1983 hit song Rosanna, sung by her then boyfriend, keyboardist Steve Porcaro, and also as Gary Gilmore's wildly sensuous girlfriend in The Executioner's Song. Claudia Dreifus caught up with Arquette in New York. Her report:

"Rosanna Arquette dresses in mink coats and punk outfits, but her face gives away the show: It betrays every small feeling, every nuance of emotion. One thing it clearly registers is an almost physical loathing of the press. Trouper to the end, though, Rosanna talks openly; whatever's on her mind at a given moment tumbles out."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: Can it be true, as we've heard, that you're insecure about your looks?

Rosanna Arquette: Yeah. I have buckteeth. I hate my thighs. I don't think I'm pretty at all. On the other hand, Madonna has an absolutely exquisite face. She's a beauty. Sometimes I fell like a shmoo next to her!

Q 2

PLAYBOY: You two became close during the filming of Desperately Seeking Susan. What did you chat about?

Rosanna Arquette: Mostly girl talk. She's really secure. She wants to be a star, and she's very comfortable with that and works hard at it. She's great with the press, because she doesn't give a shit what anybody says about her. I read a terrible thing about her and she said, "Oh, don't worry about it. Doesn't mean anything." I mean, I'd be a wreck! But Madonna's a symbol right now; she's a thing instead of a person. I will never be that big.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: But you are on the verge of serious stardom. Talk with any critic and he'll say, "Rosanna Arquette is going to be the star of the late Eighties." It sounds as if you dread what's about to happen to you.

Rosanna Arquette: I dread losing privacy. Last year, people would stop me and say, "Hey, aren't you Nastassja Kinski?" But now they're stopping me and going, "Hey, Rosann-ah!" There's something both nice and weird about it. My grandfather, Cliff Arquette, was well known from playing Charley Weaver on The Jack Paar Show and Hollywood Squares. He suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles and people kept asking him for autographs while he had to get to a hospital. Isn't that sick?

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Do you hand out much in Hollywood?

Rosanna Arquette: No. I'm a very private person. I don't go to Hollywood parties. Never have. I live in a very rustic canyon house with mice, a fireplace and wood-burning stoves. As far as I'm concerned, the Hollywood scene is full of shit.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Since you've hit the big time, are people trying to get close to you because you're "a name"?

Rosanna Arquette: Yeah. But I'm also getting the opposite, too. Suddenly, people are really weird with me. I talked with Steve Porcaro this morning and asked him, "Did that happen with the band, too?" And he said, "Oh, yeah, they're all expecting you to be an asshole so that they can start treating you differently." I don't know Sissy Spacek personally, but she seems like the kind of woman I can admire a lot. She lives away from Hollywood and she does her work and has her baby and her husband--and she shows up at the Oscars looking incredibly gorgeous. She's comfortable about herself, and so am I, and I hope to stay that way.