What the Hell Happened to Neve Campbell?

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http://lebeauleblog.com/2013/10/20/what-the-hell-happened-to-neve-campbell/

OCT 20
Posted by lebeau

Neve Campbell had the lead role on a hit TV show which lead to a leading role in a hit movie franchise. Scream revitalized the horror genre in 1996. Campbell continued to star on Party of Five while making Scream sequels. In between, she tried to make something happen outside of teen soaps and horror movies. While Campbell continued working, she fell off the public’s radar.

What the hell happened?

Campbell was born in Canada. At the age of six, she saw a performance of The Nutcracker and decided she wanted to be a ballerina. At the age of nine, Campbell moved into residence at the National Ballet School of Canada where she appeared in performances of The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. At the age of fifteen, Campbell had to leave ballet due to several injuries. Instead, she turned to acting. In 1991, at the age of eighteen, Campbell appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial featuring Bryan Adams.

That commercial is practically an audition for horror movies. And Adams is far scarier than Ghostface ever was.

Campbell also appeared in guest appearances on several Canadian TV shows. In 1991, she appeared opposite Jerry O’Connell on the super hero-themed kids show, My Secret Identity.

In 1992, Campbell appeared on the sketch comedy show, The Kids in the Hall.

She also had a recurring role in the TV show, Catwalk, in which she played a keyboardist in a Canadian rock band.

In 1993, Campbell guest starred on Are You Afraid of the Dark, a joint American-Canadian anthology show. The horror/fantasy show was aimed at kids and aired on Nickelodeon in the US.

In 1994, Campbell appeared in several TV movies and guest appearances including Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. (Campbell appears as a tennis player at the 6-minute mark in the clip above). She also appeared in the TV movies I Know My Son Is Alive and The Forget-Me-Not Murders which have to be airing on Lifetime Movie Network.

1994 was also the year Party of Five debuted. Campbell starred opposite Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox and Lacey Chabert as siblings who are orphaned when their parents are killed by a drunk driver. The show was not initially a hit. In fact, Fox considered cancelling it after the first season.

In 1995, Party of Five won the Golden Globe for Best Drama beating out shows like E/R and NYPD Blue. It was a shocking upset that brought attention to the fledgling drama. The win brought more viewers and better ratings. The ended its run after six seasons in 2000.

In 1996, Campbell appeared in a horror movie that would turn out to be a surprise hit. The movie starred several young actors who could potentially go on to be big stars. But it wasn’t Scream. It was the witch-themed movie, The Craft.

The Craft is basically Mean Girls as a horror movie or Heathers minus the dark comedy. Robin Tunney starred as a troubled teen who falls in with the wrong crowd. Fairuza Balk played the mean girl who pushes the group into darker and darker territory. Campbell played a follower in the group.

Skeet Ulrich, who would appear opposite Campbell in Scream, had a supporting role.

Portraying a high school clique as a witch’s coven may be a bit too on-the-nose for some. The movie lacks subtlety, but it did a good job of combining teen drama with the horror genre. Reviews were mixed, but The Craft opened at number one at the box office. It was a surprise hit that developed a small but devoted cult following.

Later that year, Campbell starred opposite Courteney Cox and David Arquette in Wes Craven’s Scream.

Scream was originally titles Scary Movie. Writer Kevin Williamson wrote the script and two five-page outlines for potential sequels over the course of three days. Williamson said Scary Movie was a movie he wanted to watch. But Hollywood wasn’t making that kind of scary movie in the 90′s. The slasher genre had peaked in the previous decade and Williamson hoped to revive it.

Director Wes Craven was originally interested in taking on the project. But before he could get a studio to buy the script for him, it was sold to Dimension Films. Bob Weinstein of Dimension approached Craven to direct, but by then the director was committed to a remake of The Haunting. Craven decided to distance himself from the horror genre following The Haunting and passed on Scary Movie.

The script made its way into the hands of Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was interested in starring in the film. This was almost unheard of at the time. Barrymore was an established movie star and established movie stars did not make horror movies. Horror movies were a stepping stone for unkown actors and actresses to become established movie stars. When Barrymore expressed interest, that was enough to change Craven’s mind about directing.

Barrymore had intended to play the lead role. But other commitments prevented her from doing so. Instead, she played a smaller role – almost an extended cameo. Her character was killed off in the film’s opening scenes. It was a gamble to kill off the movie’s biggest star at the beginning of the movie. But the gamble paid off. The opening death scene became a hallmark of the series.

With no lead actress in place, the studio turned to several up-and-coming actresses. Craven had seen Campbell on Party of Five and asked her to audition. Having just appeared in The Craft, Campbell was reluctant to star in another horror movie. But ultimately, she decided the part was too good to pass up.

During filming, Craven was nearly fired as director. Weinstein did not think the Ghostface mask was scary and wanted to take the movie in another direction. Craven had to put together a work print of the film’s opening 13 minutes in order to save his job.

Craven spent two months editing the film. The MPAA asked for several changes based on the film’s intensity. Craven fought to keep that intensity, but the studio would not release an NC-17 cut of the movie. Craven explained:

“I’m a director who can do something very well but am not allowed to put it on screen. And they ultimately get you, as they did on this one, on intensity. They say, ‘it’s not a specific shot, it’s not blood, it’s just too intense’.”

Ultimately, Bob Weinstein intervened and Scream was released with an R-rating.

Scream received mostly positive reviews. Ultimately, it was a hit at the box office. But it didn’t exactly start out that way. Weinstein insisted on releasing Scream during the Christmas movie season. He argued that since horror movies were never released during this season, that the target audience wouldn’t have any other alternatives.

In its opening weekend, Scream grossed roughly $6 million dollars which was considered a disappointment. Traditionally horror movies dropped about 50% in their second weekend. That would put Scream on a path to failure. But Scream didn’t drop 50%. Instead, it became a word-of-mouth hit. For the next few weeks, Scream‘s box office take increased ultimately grossing over $100 million dollars in the US.

Scream was a monster hit. But more than that, it was cool. Dimension wanted a sequel and they wanted it right away. Pretty much every actor who survived the first film reunited for Scream 2 in 1997.

Williamson began writing the sequel while Scream was still in theaters. Almost as soon as Williamson’s script was finished, it was leaked on the internet revealing the identity of the killers as well as several key plot points. The studio asked Williamson to do rewrites while the film was shooting. Sometimes, Craven didn’t have a fully written pages to work off of and had to improvise while he was shooting.

Much as the first film was a satire of the genre, Scream 2 poked fun at sequels. Cox’s character has written a book about the events of the first film and that book has been adapted into a movie called Stab. Tori Spelling, Luke Wilson and Heather Graham appeared in cameo roles in the movie-within-a-movie.

Based on the success of the first film, actors were lining up to appear in the sequel. Sarah Michelle Gellar agreed to a cameo role without reading the script. She was busy in between shooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I Know What You Did Last Summer but made time in her schedule for Scream 2. Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett were selected for the film’s opening death scene. And Campbell was reunited with Jeremy O’Connell from her Canadian TV days.

Reviews for Scream 2 were mostly positive, but not as glowing as they were for the first film. Roger Ebert complained ”there is no way to guess who’s doing the killing, and everyone who seems suspicious is (almost) sure to be innocent.” Probably not surprising considering how the film was written and rewritten. Scream 2 was a hit at the box office.

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In 1998, Campbell appeared opposite Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon and Denise Richards in the over-the-top erotic thriller, Wild Things.

Campbell played a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who… no, I can’t try to sum up the plot of Wild Things. Just see it for yourself. If the idea of a threesome among Campbell, Richards and Dillon doesn’t sell you, see it for Bill Murray’s extended cameo. It’s got just enough of a wry sense of humor to avoid being a Basic Instinct rip-off.

Despite mixed to positive reviews, Wild Things was not a hit at the box office. But it has developed a cult following over time. It has also spawned direct-to-video sequels without the involvement of any of the original cast.

Later that year, Campbell did voice work in Disney’s direct-to-video sequel to The Lion King. Campbell voiced Kiara, the only daughter of Matthew Broderick‘s Simba. Reviews were mixed to positive. Even the positive reviews put their praise in the context that Lion King 2 was good by the standards of direct-to-video movies but poor by comparison to the original. Disney had high hopes for the project and shipped 15 million copies. They sold only 13 million which is still impressive even if it fell short of their original projections.

Campbell ended the year starring opposite Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek and Mike Myers in the disco drama, 54.

The movie was set in the legendary nightclub Studio 54. Studio 54 became the hardest club in the world to get into when disco became a sensation in the 70′s. It was a haven for drug use and homosexuality. But the party came to an end in the 80′s with the death of disco and the incarceration of the club’s founders for tax evasion.

Myers played Steven Rubell, one of the two co-founders of Studio 54. How historically accurate was 54? The other partner was never mentioned. The story is mostly fictionalized. Despite the marketing material, Phillippee was the lead. Myers’ Rubell is a background character in what amounts to a soap opera.

When test audiences reacted badly to certain plot threads, the studio demanded changes. Audiences objected to a gay kiss between male leads as well as a happy endings for several of the characters they did not feel deserved them. The changes resulted in 45 minutes being cut from the film replaced by 25 minutes of new scenes and voice overs. Not surprisingly, the end result was a bit of a mess.

Reviews were negative and 54 bombed at the box office. A director’s cut was eventually released on video to better reviews.

In 1998, Campbell tried her hand at romantic comedy opposite Matthew Perry and Dylan McDermott.

McDermott played a rich businessman who thinks Perry’s character is gay. He decides to hire Perry to keep an eye on his mistress played by Campbell.

Puking, crotch injuries and homophobic humor. The only way this could be worse would be to end on a Hooties and the Blowfish song. Check, check and double check. The trailer for this movie is a stark reminder of why I rarely watch romantic comedies anymore.

Three to Tango received appropriately terrible reviews and bombed at the box office.

In 2000, Campbell returned to the Scream franchise in what was supposed to be the final chapter of a trilogy, Scream 3.

When Williamson sold his Scary Movie script, he included treatments for two sequels. His contract stipulated that he would write all three films should they be made. But with Scream‘s success, Williamson went on to other projects. Among other things, Williamson made his directorial debut with Teaching Ms. Tingle. When it came time to write the script for Scream 3, Williamson wasn’t available. Instead, he handed in pages of notes. The studio hired Ehren Kruger to write a script based on Williamson’s treatment.

Williamson’s notes returned the story to the town of Woodsboro. It ended with the reveal that all the killings had been staged by a Stab fanclub. Much of the story took place in a high school. Following the real life tragedy at Columbine, the studio considered scrapping the movie entirely. Ultimately, they decided to make Scream 3, but they threw out Williamson’s notes and started from scratch. They decided to play down the violence in favor of satire. But Craven insisted that if the movie was going to be called Scream it needed to include the same slasher elements as the first two films.

Much like the second film, the script was being written and rewritten as filming was underway. Three different versions of the ending were filmed because at the time no one knew the final fate of Patrick Dempsey’s character.

Scream 3 received negative reviews. Many critics noted that Scream 3 was the kind of movie the first Scream made fun of. Despite the bad reviews, Scream 3 was reasonably successful at the box office. It failed to break $100 million like the first two films, but it still turned a healthy profit.

Later that year, Campbell appeared opposite Danny DeVito, Bette Midler and Jamie Lee Curtis in the comic mystery, Drowning Mona.

Midler played a terrible person who drowns in a car accident. DeVito played the police officer who investigates the case. He believes that someone tampered with the brakes on her car. But Mona had so many enemies that everyone is a suspect. Campbell played DeVito’s daughter. Her mother must be a real looker.

Reviews were bad and the movie flopped at the box office.

Campbell ended the year starring opposite William H. Macy in Panic.

Macy played a middle-aged hit man who becomes fixated on a girl he meets in his therapist’s waiting room. Campbell played the girl Macy focuses on during his mid-life crisis.

Reviews were mostly positive, but Panic did not receive a wide theatrical release.

Campbell had been going strong from 1994-2000. But in 2000, both Party of Five and the Scream franchise wrapped up (although Scream would eventually be revived). With those high profile projects completed, Campbell started focusing on more independent projects. In 2001, she starred in Alan Rudolph’s comedy/drama, Investigating Sex. In 2002, she starred opposite Jeremy Irons and Sissy Spacek in the TV movie, Last Call.

In 2003, Campbell starred in Robert Altman’s drama, The Company. Campbell spent years developing the movie. She received a producer and a story credit. The movie was clearly very important to Campbell given her background in ballet. Reviews were mostly positive but The Company flopped at the box office.

Also in 2003, Campbell starred opposite the King of What the Hell Happened, Val Kilmer in the direct-to-video thriller, Blind Horizon.

In 2004, Campbell played a femme fatale in James Toback’s mostly improvised When Will I Be Loved. She also starred opposite Christian Slater in Churchill: The Hollywood Years. In 2005, she appeared in the TV movie, Reefer Madness: The Musical. From 2006-2009, Campbell appeared in a bunch of movies you have probably never heard of and TV shows you probably didn’t watch (aside from a guest spot on Medium in 2007.

In 2011, Campbell returned once again to the Scream franchise for Scream 4.

Once again, Williamson was hired to write and once again he had to bow out due to other obligations. As with Scream 3, Ehren Kruger was brought in to finish the script. And as with all the Scream sequels, rewrites were being done while the movie was filming.

A new cast of younger actors was brought on board to carry on the franchise if need be. But reviews were mixed and Scream 4 was the first in the series to disappoint at the box office. But despite relatively weak domestic box office, there has still been talk of making a fifth film in the series which remains popular overseas.

In 2012, Campbell guest starred on Grey’s Anatomy. She also starred in the cable mini-series Titanic: Blood and Steel. In 2013, she starred in the Lifetime movie, An Amish Murder. The movie was meant to launch a TV series starring Campbell but the series never materialized.

So what the hell happened?

After several years of juggling a hit TV show and a popular movie franchise, Campbell decided to switch gears. She didn’t quit show business. In fact, she has worked steadily since the early nineties. But she chose smaller projects that didn’t reach the mainstream. As a result, it seemed to most audiences like she disappeared.

Of course once an actress disappears, it becomes very difficult to come back into the spotlight. The door is always open for Campbell to return to the Scream franchise. But outside of that, her options have become limited. In July 2013, she started filming a science fiction film called Division 19. The movie attempted to raise a mere $50,000 on Kickstarter. In spite of Campbell’s presence, the project raised just over $11,000.