Neve Campbell joins ‘House of Cards,’ but not before an epic Netflix binge
Neve Campbell’s TV is on PBS’ Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood more often than not these days, but she wrested the remote from her 31⁄ 2- year-old to catch up on a few (or 30) hours of House of Cards before joining the cast as political strategist Leann Harvey in the fourth season of the Netflix drama, out Friday.
For Campbell, the joy goes beyond 13 straight hours of addictive content, encumbered only by an occasional interruption to ask if she is still watching.
“It’s great for storytelling,” Campbell says of the format for Cards, which already has been renewed for a fifth season, though without creator Beau Willimon, who is leaving the show. “You don’t have to have a beginning and a middle and end.”
And “it’s great for actors,” she says. “You don’t have to wrap everything in a pretty little bow at the end. You get larger scopes, get more of a journey and get to see a character grow more.”
That’s a lot different from, say, a network teen drama with moral platitudes at the end of a commercial-filled 60-minute episode. But it’s not the only difference from her memorable role as Julia on Fox’s Party of Five — which Campbell lightheartedly reminds us premiered more than 20 years ago.
As an operative helping Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) with her own political ambitions, Campbell’s Leann Harvey is a powerful persona, even in an already crowded political theater. She is recruited by Claire to launch her congressional bid in Texas, a move that only deepens the marital spat that was brewing between the first lady and Presi- dent Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) at the end of last season.
But Leann is not one to sit back and take direction, even from a sitting president: She goes head-to-head with White House chief of staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) and foils lobbyist Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali).
She’s joined by fellow newcomers Joel Kinnaman, who plays Frank’s Republican rival, and veteran actresses Cecily Tyson and Ellen Burstyn, who as a longterm congresswoman and Claire’s mother, respectively, have their own powerful roles. It’s a setting Campbell is thankful for, particularly as the film industry remains plagued by a lack of diversity.
“It’s great to see writers putting women in Hollywood in a really fantastic light,” she says. “It’s nice, as a 42-year-old woman in this industry, to get a character who is unapologetic and strong and not a victim.”