All her life she was accompanied by fame: when she was a model, when she became the star of the popular TV series Santa Barbara, and after that — the wife of the scandalous actor Sean Penn … Journalists forgot about her when she left her career for the sake of her family and refused many high-profile roles. But the best comes to those who know how to wait. Having played the role of the first lady of the United States in the series «House of Cards», she again found herself in the spotlight. Meeting with Robin Wright — an actress and director, who only after the divorce began to recognize herself.
It seems that she left her regal slowness and ballet in the frame of «House of Cards». I can almost see her dropping her stilettos as she steps out from under the spotlights… The woman in front of me ruffles her hair under the air conditioner, pulls back the collar of her white T-shirt, adjusts the belt of her jeans — like an ordinary New Yorker walking into a cool cafe with a warmed-up scorching street sun. She set me up with a date in old Brooklyn Heights, and I can see why.
The local inhabitants, the owners of «old white money», will never give a sign that they met a celebrity … Here Robin Wright is not threatened by the consequences of her new fame, which made her 50 years old: she will not have to give autographs, shy away from prying eyes … She can be like that , which she likes: friendly and reserved. Pacified. That in itself raises questions.
Психологије: I think about your life and come to the conclusion: you are only outwardly harmonious, unflappable, tolerant in all respects. But in fact you are a revolutionary, a subversive of the foundations. You are taking decisive action. Quitting a job to raise kids is a wild decision for a movie star, especially after hits like The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. And your divorce after twenty years of marriage! It was like a series of boxing matches — now a hug, then a knockdown, then participants in the corners of the ring. And your union with a colleague 15 years younger … Now you are back in the spotlight — in connection with the struggle for equal pay for women in the film industry and a new profession — directing. How do you manage to combine softness with uncompromisingness?
Robin Wright: I never thought of myself in such categories… That I am a wrestler… Yes, you are right about something. I have always more or less had to contradict the course of things. No… On the contrary: most of my life I just… grazed! I followed the events, they fought me. I had to resist. I really didn’t want to play Claire Underwood in House of Cards! And not just because the anti-TV prejudice told me you’ve spent enough of your life in Santa Barbara to return to that fussy little screen. Not only.
And also because she is a typical CEO with all this Machiavellianism of big business: you are inefficient, you are late, you are indecisive — you are fired. I couldn’t even fire my housekeeper. Everything in me yearns for peace and reconciliation. Or self-destruction. But indeed, the circumstances were such that I had to leave my pasture. However, mind you, not for the sake of a race with prizes and hype. And for the sake of plow.
And what does it look like when you «graze»?
R. R .: With a favorable set of circumstances, I go in my pajamas all day.
И то је све?
R. R .: Everyone thinks I’m serious — I’m joking, but you don’t recognize it. But there is some truth here: I love pajamas, they are the most natural clothes for me. So designer Karen Fowler and I developed our line of pajamas to sell to victims of violence in the Congo, and I became the face of the brand. It was a sincere idea.
My daughter was born when I was 24. Now I know that it is too early, too early. My development seems to have stopped
Helping someone through something you truly love is pure action. And if without pajamas, then … now I think that going with the flow is a rather sad occupation. Now I think: I was a dull lonely teenager in school, because I did not strive to prove myself in any way.
Are you sad and lonely? Among teenagers, when is appearance so valued?
R. R .: I suffered from dyslexia, I had difficulty studying, I did not have fighting qualities, I was not eager to be a cheerleader. All this does not contribute to the acceptance of you in hierarchical communities, which is the school. Then I got hooked on the fashion industry — through my mother’s efforts, of course. She was one of the pioneers of selling Mary Kay cosmetics and a communication genius, because the entire strategy of this company is based on sales “from hand to hand”. My mom is a fighter!
My parents separated when I was two years old. I remember how dad cried when mom put me and my brother in the car. I cried, seeing us off … After 13 years, in a conversation with my mother, I remembered this episode, and she was very surprised. She does not remember tears and generally remembers everything differently: as a decisive liberation, a departure from the past. She remembers that we said goodbye and left. Do not know. Maybe this childish consciousness attributed tears to my father, my tears are actually …
I understand a person better when I find his «prototype» in the animal world. And for each role I find a «key» in the form of an animal
And my mother is active and decisive and does not exchange for inhibiting emotions. She is amazingly kind and open, always has been. But he doesn’t let himself slow down. But although six years later my parents reunited, and I always talked with dad, this remained in me: I can’t do anything, my father is standing by the road, and I’m leaving in my mother’s car … Maybe that’s why for many years I learned this conciliatory tone in life? Do not know.
But you became a model, and this is a highly competitive field …
R. R .: It’s true. But first, I found myself in some kind of artificial enclosure: at the age of 14, I received a contract in Japan. Mom took me there. My older brother Richard was supposed to take care of me — he started his career as a photographer there. But he was not up to me, I was left to myself. And I learned so much about life — completely different from ours! Spent hours at the zoo. Since then I have had this habit — I understand a person better (or it seems to me that I understand) when I find his «prototype» in the animal world. And for each role, I find a “key” in the form of an animal.
My favorite role of yours is in Nick Cassavetes’ She’s So Beautiful. Maureen what kind of animal?
R. R .: Meerkat. She only looks like a cat, with her smoothness and softness — back against your leg. But she is interested in a warm mink and warm sun. It’s not her fault, she just can’t live without warmth. But she keeps pulling her head to see what’s on the horizon. True, its horizon is quite close.
And Claire Underwood?
R. R .: I thought for a long time… Bald eagle. Royal and statuary. He hovers over small creatures. They are his prey. But he has wings, powerful wings. He is above all — both small creatures and larger predators.
How did you go with the flow?
R. R .: Then there was a contract in Paris. A whole year in Europe for someone who grew up in glossy but provincial San Diego is a revolution. The world opened up before me. I have many questions for myself. I began to evaluate myself as a person, and not as a function — am I good in the pictures, am I disciplined enough for the “big podium” and is my chest really as small as one famous photographer shouted to the make-up artist at the shooting: “Yes, do something if they slipped me a flat-chested model!”
I began to analyze myself and was dissatisfied with myself. But I had no idea that this dissatisfaction leads to much more selfishness than self-satisfaction. Then «Santa Barbara» — life on schedule, in constant tension. And then — love, family, children. My first marriage to a Santa Barbara colleague was a comrade-in-arms marriage: a big party, and it ended quickly.
But with Sean, everything was initially serious. And I thought it was forever. Yes, it happened: 20 years of relationship is a synonym for “always” for me. Dylan was born when I was 24. Now I know it’s early, very early, needlessly early. My development seems to have stopped.
But how could a new relationship, motherhood, stop development? It is generally accepted that these are catalysts for growing up!
R. R .: But I didn’t get to know myself! And for the next decade and a half, I was raising children, I was not completely myself, I was a mother. Most of my adult life! I have only recently begun to discover who I am.
But for the sake of the children, you have changed life dramatically. Is not decisiveness a sign of a mature person?
R. R .: That’s when circumstances began to seriously fight me. Well imagine: I refuse roles during the school year, but agree to act in film during the holidays. And there: «Well, go to the zoo again, and in the evening we will go together to eat ice cream.» That is: dear children, once again please leave my life, and then you can return. Do you understand? The profession separated me from the children. I had to put up a barrier.
Are children who grew up under constant supervision now satisfied with their mother?
R. R .: I have made a personal discovery as a mother that the only way to get children to listen to you is to give them as much independence as possible. And I made this discovery just in time — just before the entry of Dylan and Hopper (they are a year and a half apart) into delicate adolescence. Dylan is a very independent person, at the age of 16 she began to make mature professional decisions and became a model not out of inertia, but meaningfully — to see the world not through the eyes of a daughter of rich parents, but through the eyes of an active participant.
My first marriage to a Santa Barbara colleague was a comrade-in-arms marriage: a solid party, and it ended quickly.
But Hopper turned out to be a terribly risky guy. At the age of 14, he tried to perform a trick on a skateboard so difficult that he almost died. Intracranial bleeding and all. Sean overestimated his whole life while the operation was going on. I just almost died. Nothing, we survived … A side effect of children’s independence. But it’s worth it.
What about divorce? Was it a sign of growing up — after 20 years of marriage?
R. R .: Not at all, I wouldn’t interpret it that way. On the contrary, I tried my best to maintain the status quo. We reconciled, united, then parted again. And so for three years. I was afraid to change my life, because … It was clear — in a new life, after Sean, a new me would have to appear.
And she showed up?
R. R .: She appeared when I realized myself. One day I woke up and realized that there was nothing to worry about. I did something in my life, experienced something, and kept worrying whether I was good, what I was like as an actress, as a mother, as a wife. And it was stupid to worry — you just had to live. I realized that there was nothing to worry about, not because the children became adults, and my marriage ended — after all, marriage is a beautiful fortress, but how long can one live behind the fortifications! No, I realized that there is no need to worry, because the experience of what has already been experienced says: live, you can just live.
And then a new man appeared. You were not embarrassed by the age difference of 15 years?
R. R .: Of course, it didn’t bother me. What does it matter when you finally live life to the fullest, read as much as you’ve never read before, and feel so much and laugh! Hell, Ben Foster was the first man to ask me out!
Да?
R. R .: I mean, no one has ever asked me out on a date before. I’ve been married all my life! And before that, no one had asked me out on a date. Moreover, the date was wonderful — it was poetry reading. In every way a new experience.
And yet you broke up …
R. R .: I work for a project that works to protect women from violence and I spend a lot of time in Africa. There I learned the African way of looking at things: every next day is a new one. And it has already begun: as a director, I made several episodes in House of Cards and I plan to become a director completely. Look, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next five minutes, so why suffer over what’s already happened? Tomorrow will be a new day.