Before They Were Stars (2-for-1 Special): Patricia Arquette and Dermot Mulroney in “Daddy”

Now that the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards have been announced, it’s time for an annual tradition here at The Back Row: “Before They Were Stars” clips for this year’s nominees! Patricia Arquette has just received her first Oscar nomination for her role in Boyhood as a single mother struggling to raise two kids whom she had too young. Appropriately enough, one of Arquette’s early roles was a cheesy 1987 made-for-TV movie called Daddy, where she and an unknown Dermot Mulroney played a teenage couple who experience an unplanned pregnancy. I’ve noticed a lot of IMDb commenters mention that they were forced to watch Daddy in school in order to drive home the point that teenage pregnancy is bad. Ironically enough, Arquette did this movie around the same time as her breakthrough role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors and soon became pregnant for real. As a result, she was unable to return for the next Elm Street sequel and her character was recast with a different actress.