NEVE CAMPBELL

TAKES IT OFF AND TAKES CONTROL

by Brad Balfour

Copyright © 2004 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: November 17, 2004.

When Will I Be Loved is a treat for Neve Campbell fans. Breaking her longstanding no-nudity ban, she not only appears here sans clothes but both with an older man and a lovely woman. In her previous movie, The Company, this 30-something actress began her effort towards independence both professionally and creatively. This outspoken former Canadian first came to the public’s attention when she starred in the TV show, Party of Five, and then hit the big screen with the horror film spoof, Scream. Once she did The Craft and Wild Things she established herself as both sexy and provocative, but with a “no nudity” clause in her contracts.

Well now Campbell is tackling the erotically charged Vera, a femme fatale exploring the limits of her sexuality and intellectual power. Her fast-talking hustler boyfriend tries to pimp her out to an aging Count for $100,000 but he has gravely underestimated her and she turns the tables on everyone.

What prompted you to do your first nude scenes with director James Toback [Black and White, Two Girls and a Guy]?

Before; my feeling on nudity was that if it wasn’t necessary and has nothing to do with the film then I wouldn’t do it. If it’s for a box office draw as opposed to the content then it doesn’t make sense to me. But since When Will I Be Loved is about her sexual spiritedness, it makes sense. here.

What kind of direction did you get for the shower scenes?

Get in and bathe. That was pretty much it. James is really smart because many directors try to direct things like that and at that point it’s only going to make the actor uncomfortable. You tend to get more out of the actor if you allow them their freedom and then allow them to believe they made the choices themselves. It was the same in the [lesbian sex] scene with Joelle [Carter]. I chose her. James had me sit in a room with a bunch of girls to figure out who I was most comfortable with. He had us decide what we were going to do in the scene.

How do you feel about When Will I Be Loved being characterized as a post-feminist statement?

I can understand why people might jump up and say that because we don’t often get to see women be powerful and not play the victim. To me this is a woman who is curious, very intelligent and interested in people and life while trying to figure out who she is. She is courageous enough to fight back against the people who are trying to manipulate her. But she is also takes a very dark turn so I don’t know if this is a positive film. It’s positive in that she doesn’t allow herself to be a victim but I wouldn’t admire her choices.

What aspects of her do you see in yourself?

I think we all have been underestimated and manipulated to some extent so we get that moment in our minds where we wish we could be dark and get back at those people.

Did you see your character as a femme fatale?

We were finding that out as we went along which is what I loved about the movie. Often when you see these Black Widow types, you see from the beginning that they have made a choice of how and who they are going to be. Then the outcome occurs. With this, she doesn’t know exactly what they are going to do. She’s just taking it as it comes and testing the [other characters]. I think she is trying to find out how far they will go with their insidiousness. To me that’s more interesting thing to watch because you don’t know if you are supposed to be judging these characters.

Is a good move to change people’s image of you?

Definitely. I would say that it’s out the window. For a long time, I was told to be concerned about people’s idea of me [regarding] the choices I was making and what it would do to my career. No matter what your choices are you truly have no control about what people think of you. It also gets boring doing that because you end up not making choices for yourself. I’m just at a point where I want to do work that is interesting, that challenges me and I want to be around people that inspire and push me. The choices I’ve made has caused this kind of independent idea of me but I just want to have fun.

You passed on Scream 4; you don’t want to do big budget films?

There’s nothing [more] to do with Scream 4. I didn’t feel there was anything to do with Scream 3 but luckily we pulled it off. Everyone that Sidney Prescott has loved has either tried to kill her or had been killed. She should have been in an insane asylum after the first film. I was really concerned about Scream 3 being too similar to the first two—that’s why I put in my contract that I would only shoot 12 days. I think we were lucky that we were able to make a good trilogy. Then Dimension/Miramax also makes the Scary Movie series which make fun of that whole genre they started.

How long did you shoot When Will I Be Loved?

Eleven days. It was a small crew and everyone was excited to work on it. We didn’t have a lot of time to discuss everything so a lot of it was on the fly. It was very exciting.

Do you like working in New York?

I love New York. I’m looking for an apartment here. I love the multicultural vibe here. Los Angeles doesn’t inspire me in any way. Everyone is the same industry, you’re in your car and you feel very isolated. Here in New York you’re always in everyone’s face. Life comes to you instead of having to do search for it. My brother, Christian, lives here so I come hang out with him a lot.

What happened to your Broadway debut, Syncopation?

It fell apart because the money fell out. I would have been doing it right now. I’m so bummed and now I’m looking at other shows.

With your last film, The Company, you produced for the first time. Were you pleased with the response?

I know that financially it could have done better but I never started out making The Company thinking it was going to make money. You don’t make a style with that much style, that much freedom and with such a little narrative and hope to make money. Critically it did really well and I can’t tell you how many times a week I have dancers come up to me and thank me for representing their world the right way.

Are you going to be producing anything else?

I still have this project, A Private War, which a friend of mine wrote. It’s about his experience with Tourettes Syndrome. My little brother Damian has Tourettes so that’s very close to me. We're just looking for the right director.