Patricia Arquette had a ‘big crush’ on ‘High Desert’ co-star Matt Dillon

Award-winning actress Patricia Arquette stars in the new comedy series “High Desert” opposite Matt Dillon — with whom she was smitten in her youth.

“I had grown up watching him and had a big crush on him, like all girls my age,” Arquette, 55, told The Post. 

“I never thought I’d get a chance to work with him, but I had always wanted to,” she said. “It was such a wonderful surprise to finally get that opportunity. When they brought up his name in the casting meeting, we all screamed.

“It was very exciting.” 

Premiering Wed. May 17 on “High Desert,” premiering May 17 on AppleTV+, was created by Nancy Fichman (“Nurse Jackie”), Katie Ford (“Miss Congeniality”) and Jennifer Hoppe.

The story follows Peggy (Arquette), a woman who is down-on-her-luck. Her estranged husband Denny (Matt Dillon) is in prison, she’s reeling from her mother’s death, she’s a recovering addict and she’s got a dead-end job working as an actress in an Old West frontier-town tourist attraction. 

“I liked the humor, and also the characters. I knew a lot of addicts growing up. A lot of them passed away from their addiction. They were kind of near and dear in my heart,” said Arquette. “They were deteriorating and crazy-making, and yet they have beautiful parts, too. And in the chaos, it was easy to forget that, at certain points. Peggy is such a wild creature.”

Arquette, who’s won two Emmys (“Medium,” “The Act) — and who snared a 2014 Oscar for “Boyhood” –said that Peggy also reminded her of her late sister, Alexis Arquette, who died in 2016 at age 47. 

“That quality [Peggy has] of picking up broken bird [type of] people and trying to help them with all of their stuff really reminded me of my sister, Alexis,” she said. “Peggy can’t walk by somebody who is having a problem and not help them. That reminded me of Alexis, too.  I love that quality of Peggy, that she loves other people.”

After her mother (Bernadette Peters) has passed, Peggy’s siblings (Keir O’Donnell and Christine Taylor) want to sell the house that Peggy had been living in. Peggy, faced with these life changes, decides to become a private investigator. 

“My mom had passed away too, so that was definitely a giant loss,” she said. “And there’s a girlish quality that Bernadette Peters has that my mom had.

“There was definitely a closeness with that [between Peggy’s life and mine], and I was so excited to work with [Peters]. She’s such a legend,” she said. “Everyone just came in and we had fun, every day.”

The show ended up being a family affair, because Arquette’s daughter, Harlow Jane (who she had with ex-husband Thomas Jane), appears in one episode playing a younger version of Peggy. 

“I was excited and nervous for her. I wasn’t on the set that day. I gave her space to do her own thing,” Arquette said. “She did a wonderful job. She wanted to meet with me and discuss my thoughts about it, not like her mom but as the older Peggy.

“So we did.”

Arquette, who’s also in the AppleTV+ sci-fi hit “Severance,” was mum about Season 2, which does not yet have a premiere date. 

“I can’t share anything. We’re not shooting right now because of the writer’s strike,” she said.

“But when we finish, I think it will be really good.”