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HOLLYWOOD – It's safe to say Patricia Arquette is passionate — and not just about her Oscar win. In fact, there wasn't much talk about her Oscar at all when she came backstage.

“It is time for us. It is time for women,” said the “Boyhood” actress when asked about her speech in which she called for equal pay for women (full transcript here). “Equal means equal. And the truth is, the older women get, the less money they make. … the highest percentage of children living in poverty are female-headed households.  And it's inexcusable that we go around the world and we talk about equal rights for women in other countries and …We don't have equal rights for women in America and we don't because when they wrote the Constitution, they didn't intend it for women. 

“So, the truth is, even though we sort of feel like we have equal rights in America, right under the surface, there are huge issues that are applied that really do affect women.  And it's time for all the women in America and all the men that love women, and all the gay people, and all the people of color that we've all fought for to fight for us now.”

As for her biggest fan in the audience — three-time Oscar winner and fellow nominee Meryl Streep — Arquette says she did see her briefly after her speech. “I hugged her afterwards.  She's the queen of all actresses, patron saint of actresses.”

As she did earlier in the evening, Arquette also took aim at the “dreaded Mani Cam” on the red carpet: “Instead of getting a manicure, which I was supposed to do this morning…instead, I ended up trying to pull pictures because [my organization Givelove.org] started a sweepstakes this morning for our charity to do ecological sanitation in the world. …This is who I am.  This is the whole who I am.  I love my business, I love acting and I love being a human being on earth and I want to help.  I never saw this moment in me winning an Academy Award.  I never even thought I would be nominated and I was okay with that.  But you know what I did see?  I saw many things that have come true in my life, and one of them was helping thousands and thousands of people, and I have, and I will, and I will help millions of people.  Thank you.”

Oh, and in case you thought “Boyhood” director and producer Richard Linklater should've been honored for his ultra-risky filmmaking feat at the PGAs? You're not alone.

“We have a seven-year contract rule in America.  So, this little boy [“Boyhood” star Ellar Coltrane] could have decided at seven years he wanted to walk away,” she said of the 12-year process of making the film. “And even though it was a small budget movie, $2.8 million, he could have walked away in the middle of our movie.  To sort of find a financier to give us money, even though it was just $2.8 million.  That's a big investment to make with no safety net.  And I was actually kind of blown away that the Producers Guild didn't honor that because that really was such a brave move.”