“Just to wake up and hear the birds, you don’t hear planes, trains or cars … nothing. You just hear nature.”
Almost alone, at 8,000 feet in the remote Canadian wilderness, actress Robin Wright faces the outdoors, instead of the wilderness of Washington. “Maybe because I spent six years on stage filming ‘House of Cards,’ I haven’t been out much,” she said.
“Ever?” asked Correspondent Lee Cowan.
“Like, never! Let’s really make a departure and go to the other end of the spectrum!” she laughed.
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Wright’s last character is a broken woman, who abandons everything she knows and retreats to a mountain top in her new film, “Land. “
“What we’ve seen in the last four years has been just to encourage more evil in the world,” she said. “And I just wanted to make a film about human kindness.”
“And do you think that’s what it’s all about in the end?”
“Do.”
Wright not only plays in the film, but he also directs it.
Cowan said, “You certainly didn’t logically choose a light film to be your directorial debut, did you?”
“No! No, I didn’t think of that at the time.”
Daniel Power / Focus Features
Parts of this high ground in Alberta can deliver four seasons, sometimes in a single day. “You have four thousand people asking you questions for even ten minutes – ‘Where do you want this, what do we do with it, yes yes yes, what goal do we want’ – and then you have to jump in front of the camera and I have a malfunctioning scene. And I would only have one take on myself, then I would dry out and be so mad at myself. “
She is used to playing both sides of the room. She directed several episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” including the season finale. And yet, she remains one of the small groups of women in Hollywood who were handed the reins to direct.
Wright said, “Should I? I can? Yes, you can. You can do it. You just have to dedicate yourself to your strength and your confidence that you can do it.”
Her roles are often strong, even intimidating women. Wright has a softer side, of course. Her Instagram shows that. Glamorous photos, yes, but if you ask women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, those pajamas that Wright wears are life-saving.
Two decades of civil war have left the country in ruins. Rebels often use rape as a tool of war.
Wright said: “When you are raped in that country, you are renounced by your family, because it is your fault. Their family has been dismembered, they live in refugee camps, walking three miles to get water outside a refugee camp, and not knowing if you will be raped or killed every day of your life. “
So the money from the sales of those pajamas – under the brand name Pour le Femme – goes to those women in Congo and other conflict zones around the world.
If you think she sounds a lot like her ex-husband, actor-activist Sean Penn, probably, but those days are far behind her. Her two children with Penn are now older, and Wright has remarried. He does his best to keep that part of life away from the glare.
Cowan asked, “Still, does it take a lot of work to be private?”
“I don’t know, do I? You just become more aware of being private – knowing what to share and what not to share in interviews, things like that.”
Wright grew up in Texas, but moved to Southern California, where as a teenager, she began starring in John Hughes’ films. “That was all you wanted: you wanted to be in a John Hughes movie!” she said.
“Sixteen Candles? Breakfast Club?”
“Oh, yes! I’ve read it all, several times. And I haven’t received any.”
– Damn it, Molly Ringwald! Cowan laughed.
But before the end of the ’80s, she landed on the side of a princess, in “Princess Bride”.
Cowan asked, “Is there anything that hasn’t been asked about that movie after all these years?”
“I’m always asked the same question: do you believe in true love, as the movie says?” she said. “Yeah, yeah. And he always asks about Andre the giant. Everyone wants to know what it was like.”
“Well, now I have to ask, how was he?”
“The sweetest puppy. Massive, gentle giant.”
A few years later came her role as Jenny in “Forrest Gump.”
“It definitely opened a lot of doors for you, I imagine.” Cowan said. “Was it a little overwhelming?”
“It’s what you want, but I was so immersed in being a mother, why not just pace your career? You have to become a star, and then that star disappears? Because you do too much, you’re seen too much? I knew I never wanted to be like that. “
She woke up in rhythm. When “House of Cards” first appeared, she was over 40, but before she took it, she still had questions for executive producer David Fincher: “I just don’t want to take time out of my life to to be just the arm candy of a senator at a show or a governor. And he said, “I promise it won’t be.”
Netflix
Her last role is another kind of strong. Her directorial skills, too, are different. But it’s not over.
Cowan asked, “Do you know what’s next?”
“I want to direct more,” she laughed.
“Do you ever see yourself stepping into the final room?”
“For good? No. For good, no, I don’t think so.”
After all, the view from the top of his career is pretty good.
To watch a trailer for “Land”, click on the video player below:
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Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Joseph Frandino.