When Patricia Arquette starred in the television show Medium, which ran from 2005 to 2011, she was once asked to lose weight for the show.

She told them No.

That is the kind of woman you get with Patricia Arquette. She grew up in a hippie commune in Virginia. Her parents struggled with alcohol and abuse issues. But four kids from that household have gone on to successful careers in Hollywood, including one who transitioned from male to female long before Caitlyn Jenner.

“The older I get, the more I feel like I just want to live the way I live and to talk about the things I think are important,” Patricia Arquette told Daily Life Australia.

That includes speaking out about the pay disparity between men and women, like she did when she accepted an Oscar this year.

“It’s so weird at this point in time that I even had to say something,” Arquette says. “So weird that, in the supposedly civilized world, women are being discriminated against.”

It's great to see Patricia Arquette back on television. I love seeing her on #CSICyber I became a fan of hers when she starred on #Medium.

— Ricky/Rico (@Proud_Russian) May 13, 2015

Despite a difficult upbringing — which she says is all forgiven — Arquette got something from her mother that lives on in her. Her mother was a civil rights activist who once rode with Martin Luther King.

Today, Patricia Arquette makes her mark her way. Maybe that includes Oscar speeches and middle fingers to television execs who think she needs to lose weight. Or maybe that includes a photo shoot for a plus-size clothing label.

Arquette works as ambassador for Marina Rinaldi, a plus-size arm of the Max Mara label from Italy. Melissa McCarthy and Rebel Wilson have work Rinaldi in red-carpet appearances.

“I was excited to do it,” Arquette says of the shoot and work with the label, “because in the world of fashion we’re supposed to come in a certain package. There’s this idea that we’re not beautiful in all shapes and forms. We have a tradition of apologizing for looking a way that’s perceived as less. So yes, glamour for all women and allowing them to feel beautiful and not letting the world tell them what is beautiful is really important.”

.@PattyArquette is spending some quality family time with @MarinaRinaldiMR: http://t.co/PsLAwh7f27 pic.twitter.com/a1JYYvg630

— WWD (@wwd) June 30, 2015