Neve Campbell: Interview
This article appeared in FHM Magazine, June 1998. It was written by Anthony Noguera.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has been responsible for many artistic atrocities: casting Elaine Paige as Eva Peron, encouraging Sarah Brightman to sing in public, dressing grown adults as cats.
And of course, let us not forget the roller-skating pantomime horror that is Starlight Express. But we must be thankful for the one thing that Webber’s cheesy piano plink-plonking has brought us of worth. You see, if he hadn’t set Phantom Of The Opera to music, then a 15-year-old Canadian ballerina called Neve Campbell would never had been spotted by a talent agent in one of her 800 performances in the Toronto production of the show. She’d never have been in adverts. She’d never have starred in the hit TV show Party Of Five. She’d never have made three hit movies, The Craft, Scream and now Scream 2. She wouldn’t be the hottest young actress in Hollywood, and FHM would have a big, white space on its cover this month. So credit where credit’s due – thank you, Sir Andrew. Neve (it rhymes with Bev) Campbell was born on October 3, 1973 in Guelph, Ontario to parents Marnie and Gerry. At the age of six she started dancing. By the time she was nine she was enrolled at the prestigious National Ballet School of Canada – one of the best and hardest ballet academies in the world. Though a gifted dancer, the school’s ultra-strict disciplinary code and back-stabbing atmosphere jarred, and when she was 14 she suffered a stress-related nervous breakdown. She transferred to an alternative high school and within a year was appearing twice daily as a Degas girl in Phantom.
After a handful of commercials and a short stint as a model, Neve turned to acting full-time. Roles in unremarkable made-for-TV fare such as I Know My Son Is Alive, The Dark and Paint Cans lead to a lead role in the angsty – but popular – weekly drama Party Of Five, in which she plays the serious, hippy-ish Julia Salinger. From there it was a short hop to Hollywood and The Craft, a teen-witch fantasy romp that brought her to the attention of production company Miramax, who were casting for their ironic teen slasher flick, Scream. Cue much ringing of cash-tills around the globe.
Campbell was suddenly the most feted actress in Hollywood. In June she stars with Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon and Denise Richards (the beautiful Starship Troopers lead) in Wild Things, a twisted, sexy who dunit. Neve plays Suzie Toller, “an ex-convict, drug-addicted bisexual.” Fans of Party Of Five will be shocked by Campbell’s energetic three-in-a-bed romp and the erotic kissing scene she shares with Richards. Later in the year Neve appears with Mike Myers in New York-set disco drama 54 as well as in the independently-produced Hairshirt, but you can see her this month in the inevitable – but actually more enjoyable – sequel to Scream. Back as Sidney Prescott, the unlucky teen whose friends and family keep getting slashed to ribbons by knife-wielding horror-movie geeks, Campbell is the babe that every guy wants to save.
“Initially I was worried about doing a sequel, about being typecast as a ‘Scream Queen’ kind of thing,” Campbell admits during FHM ’s Los Angeles cover shoot. “But I was incredibly happy when I read Kevin Williamson’s script for Scream 2. I felt it was not as funny – it was funnier – and not as scary – it was scarier – so I was both surprised and elated.”
So away from the gore and the screaming, what’s Neve Campbell actually like? Well, contrary to Hollywood type, the 24-year-old (who is, by the way, awaiting her divorce from actor Jeff Colt) is approachable, if a little shy; naturally attractive but not blatantly sexy; and dresses comfortably rather than stylishly. She describes herself as: “Basically, the girl next door. I don’t walk around in elegant gowns all day. On my days off I lie around in pyjamas. My favourite pair have cows all over them.” And, most encouragingly, she’s a good laugh, happy to take the time to chat and, best of all, the first to take the piss out of herself.
Later in the day she’s going to see a hypnotist about giving up the weed, but right now she’s remembering her first taste of the limelight as a cocksure young shopper in a TV ad for a local shopping mall called The Eaton Center. “It was a silly little commercial and I only had one line,” she laughs. “I’m with my two little brothers and we’re having a hard time trying to decide what to buy our mother for Christmas and I say, ‘Hey guys – look what I got mom.’ And it’s a pair of gloves.”
Do you get a really good discount if you shop at The Eaton Center now?
Ha ha! No, I don’t think so – but I haven’t been there in years. Maybe I should try and work that, huh? Maybe I should demand 60 per cent off everything. And they’ll be like, ‘Don’t you make enough to just pay for these gloves?’
You also did an advert for Tampax. Your Scream co-star Courteney Cox’s first professional engagement was an appearance in a Tampax commercial – did the two of you swap notes?
I didn’t know she’d done a Tampax ad, too. She was the first? Really? Wow! We haven’t discussed it. I didn’t even get a line in that ad. I’m kinda happy about that in retrospect, though.
What did the script call for you to do, then? Rollerskate? Windsurf? Ride a horse through the surf?
No, but tampon adverts are the worst, aren’t they? They’re so unrealistic – like women are going to do all this athletic stuff wearing skin-tight white pants! It’s ridiculous, ha ha! My commercial was like a gang of silly teenage girls running around school on photo day – you know, when everyone gets their picture taken for the yearbook. They’re in this line-up waiting to have their pictures taken and I look in my purse to pull out a hairbrush and my tampons are in there. I look very proud of them.
And then you got into modelling…
I was a model for about two months. I did an ad for Sony and a lot of catalogue stuff. You know – where you have to point in a silly way at the camera. I couldn’t stand modelling. I think because I’d been training since I was six as a dancer and performing since I was a kid, the idea of just standing in front of a camera and not utilising any of my talents didn’t make any sense. Man, it was so horrible. All I wanted to do was make goofy faces at the photographer.
Did you have to sport any particularly vile outfits?
Oh yeah. I did something for Avon with this tacky purse. And I had to do like bra and underwear stuff, which was just devastating! I think that was my last job, then I was like, “I’m out of here!”
Your first significant acting role was in a Canadian soap, Catwalk, where you played a young strumpet called Daisy.
Yeah. Daisy was an orphan, of course, and a bit of a wild one in the band that the show was centred on. I wore the most ridiculous clothing. I look at it now and go, “wow, times have really changed!” I had like painted leotards and then a little vest over it and my hair pooped right out and tacky earrings. It looks horrible now, and unfortunately they’re still playing those same 24 episodes in Canada. It’s got a cult following that I just can’t understand.
Didn’t Daisy’s somewhat loose morals lead to bulging sacks of fan mail from the Big House?
Oh yeah. I’d get some normal ones where they’d tell me they loved the show and that they watched it all the time, and I’m like, “Yeah, right – you’re really thinking about the talent on the show.” And then I got some weird ones, like a guy who described my mouth and then every part of my body in graphic detail. All I could think was, “Umm, when do you get out?”
Who was your first crush on?
There was a boy in school when I was six called Sammy Williamson. I totally had a big crush on him. I remember us kicking and hitting each other a lot – which is, of course, the way you flirt when you’re a kid. He kinda had a crush on me too, but he also liked another girl called Andrea, and I wasn’t very happy about that. When I was seven we had this kissing contest and I wanted to kiss Sammy, but he was doing it with Andrea so I had to kiss Larry Hammond. It was at recess and it was meant to be “who could kiss the longest”. I kissed Larry and it only lasted about three seconds. I thought I was going to throw up afterwards, because he’d just eaten a peanut butter sandwich and it was all over the inside of his mouth.
Lovely. So where’s the most interesting place you’ve been kissed?
Wow… in an alleyway in Spain, I guess. It was years ago and I was with my boyfriend at the time. We’d had some drinks in a bar earlier and we were just making out.
Have you got any good first-date disaster stories?
Yeah. I ordered French onion soup in a restaurant on the first official date I ever went on. It was a disaster. I thought, “I’m just going to be dainty and order the soup.” I’d never had French onion soup before and I didn’t realise that it was going to be impossible to eat. I thought it’d be a really classy thing to order. I tried desperately hard to pretend I was cool with it, but my date was just staring at me, like: “What’s the matter with you?” And of course, French onion soup isn’t great for your breath. I have no idea what I was thinking.
I heard that you were a bit of a punk as a teenager?
As much of a punk as I could be while going to a ballet school! There was a rule that our hair had to be lower than our shoulder-blades and we had to wear it up in a bun. One month I was really upset with the school and I went and had the back of my head shaved, so that when I had my hair up the bun sat on the back of a bald head. They were not happy with me at all. I would’ve been kicked out for anything more than that. All I could get away with was that incident and wearing my dad’s university leather jacket.
Did you have a punk boyfriend?
I went out with a guy called Aaron when I was about 17 because he used to have a mohawk. I thought he was the coolest guy. But he left me after three weeks.
The Party Of Five crew call you “Foghorn” because of your laugh – have you any other nicknames?
Just the typical ones you get as a kid. My dad called me “Monkey”. And at school I’d get “Nevster” and “Campbell Soup makes you poop.” I’d be like: “Ho ho ho – I’ve never heard that before.”
You have a Scottish heritage – your dad originally came from Glasgow – so have you ever had haggis?
I actually grew up in a Scottish community in Toronto, so I’ve experienced a lot of traditional Scottish things. And I really love haggis. I think it tastes great. I love all kinds of spicy food.
And do you enjoy the sight of a man in a kilt?
Oh yeah, absolutely. But that’s because they’re not wearing anything underneath! Do you know why Scotsmen used to wear kilts when they went into battle?
Was it to flash their opponents – thus scaring the beejeesuses out of them?
No, ha ha! That’s not why. It’s so that if they wanted to go to the bathroom they wouldn’t have to stop. It kinda makes sense doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? You don’t think that’s true?
No.
Well, that’s what I was told and anyway it’s better than your story! Flashing their enemies? That is so funny. You must’ve seen that in Braveheart.
What was the first thing you treated yourself to when you made some money?
A Volkswagen Cabriolet – I went all out! I got myself a little Bug when I was 17. It was green with a white top. It was my reward to myself.
And what do you drive now?
A green Porsche with tan interior. I felt so guilty about buying the Porsche, but I needed a new car. I’ve always wanted a Porsche. It’s a 911 Carrera, tiptronic – you can flip the gears in it from the steering wheel, just like you can in a race car.
Are you a good driver?
I’ve never been in an accident. And no, I don’t suffer from road rage, either. I make a conscious effort not to. If someone cuts me up, then I just let them do their thing. In Los Angeles especially, you can’t give someone the finger because they’ll just pull out their gun! You can’t really afford to have road rage in LA. What’s the dumbest thing anyone’s ever said to you in Hollywood? In the first week I was in Los Angeles, I met Scott Baio. He was trying to pick me up and told me not to bother trying to be an actress because I’d only end up on the casting couch. He was a little persistent, but I beat him at pool and I think he was a little put off by that.
Are you any good at pool?
Yeah, I’m pretty good. I haven’t played for a while, but I used to play all the time in Toronto. I’ve been known to be a shark. Mind you, I’m terrible at breaking. I love it because it’s like dancing – if you’re doing it right and you have the proper technique then you’ll succeed.
What is your least favourite body part?
My eyes are too close together and I have funny-looking knees, but my feet are the worst. I have terrible bunions from all that dancing. Really horrible. I have arthritis in my toes and I’m in pain a lot, so I’m having surgery on them after my next movie. My toes are really ugly, really enormous. And they’re hairy, too.
I hear that’s one of the signs of The Devil…
Ha ha ha! You know, a lot of people have hairy toes but just won’t admit it. But because my toes are so much bigger it’s very obvious.
Why don’t you just shave them?
I do. I’m not vain, so it doesn’t bother me that much that I have hairy toes.
What’s the worst part of a man’s body?
I don’t really know of a worst part – I like men’s bodies. But sometimes men have tiny calves and it doesn’t suit their legs.
And your favourite part?
Hands. Nice big, strong hands. What would you like to change about yourself? I’m pretty disorganised. Actually I’m a pig. I’m so messy. I leave my clothes all over the place. And I spend so little time at home that the last thing I want to do when I’m in is cleaning. And I hate doing pots and pans. Washing up sucks so badly.
What vices have you got?
Smoking. But I’m quitting today, so we’ll see. I started smoking when I was 13. I thought it was cool and all the other kids were trying it. I wasn’t a consistent smoker. My first cigarette made me really sick, but I just wanted to try it again. I didn’t get really into it until I was 17. I don’t want to be one of those reformed smokers telling everyone else to quit it.
In Wild Things, you get to trade spit with Denise Richards. What’s different about kissing a woman as opposed to a man?
It’s softer. It wasn’t at all repulsive. We went and drank loads of tequila and margaritas and red wine to prepare ourselves.
Did you use tongues? A little – she’s a good kisser.
Are you a good kisser?
I think so. I’ve been told I am – but I guess they could have been lying.
Richards was given an inscribed silver vibrator as a present from the crew of Wild Things when shooting was over – what did you get?
The producers gave me a pearl necklace. I left about three weeks before the movie wrapped, so I didn’t get anything from the crew themselves. Perhaps I should write to them and ask them where my silver vibrator is.
Can you take your drink?
Yeah. I love red wine and vodka and tonic. And beer, because I’m a Canadian. I don’t get hangovers very often. I take loads of vitamins and drink loads of water and just get on with it. I got drunk at the Oscars. I’m a happy drunk. I become very open. But I don’t drink to the point where I fall over.
I heard that you were desperately unpopular at school.
When I was nine we had this awful thing at school where we had cookies on Valentine’s Day, and every student could buy them and send them to other class members. They would call up each student every time their name came out of the box. I wasn’t called up… no, wait, I was called up once because the teacher gave me a cookie. I was devastated. No one would spend five cents to send me a cookie.
And unbelievably – considering this issue’s cover – you used to be teased for being “ugly”.
When you’re a kid and you don’t fit in then you’re going to get called ugly no matter what. And I didn’t fit in. They even had a song that talked about how ugly I was. It described each girl in my class, from the prettiest to the ugliest, and I was the last one. The end of the song just went: “Neveurrggh, Neveurrggh” like they were throwing up.
Beautiful!
I was very flattered. I used to go home and cry.
And finally, wouldn’t you have preferred Sidney to have been offed at the end of Scream 2 so you can get out of having to appear in the “threequel”?
No. It’s always much better to play a character who survives. And anyway, I’m not under contract to do another, so it’ll be up to me whether I’m in the third film or not. I think Scream has been fantastic for me. I had a lot of fun doing the first two movies and they don’t take themselves seriously. And I like that!