Robin Wright’s Girlfriend experience
With her new series The Girlfriend launching on Prime Video later this year, Robin Wright discusses her journey from acting to directing, reveals who predicted House of Cards would be a game-changer for TV and explains why AI will never replace actors.
Through her role in House of Cards, Robin Wright was at the forefront of TV’s streaming revolution. It was also the project that gave her the chance to direct a series for the first time.
Wright went on to shoot 10 episodes of the political thriller, which marked Netflix’s first original series back in 2013. And after subsequently directing 2021 feature Land and episodes of Ozark and Tell Me Lies, she’s now doubling up in front of and behind the camera once again for The Girlfriend.
Based on the novel by Michelle Frances, the series stars Wright as Laura, a woman with a seemingly perfect life. When her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson) brings home Cherry (Olivia Cooke), her world is blown apart, convinced that Cherry isn’t who she says she is. But is Cherry really a manipulative social climber, or is Laura just paranoid and possessive of her only son?
Wright was approached by series producer Imaginarium Productions with the offer to play Laura almost four years ago. The actor agreed – but asked if she could direct too. She then took charge of the first three episodes of the six-part series, which will launch on Prime Video worldwide later this year.
As an actor shifting into directing, “it’s so fulfilling,” Wright tells DQ at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival. “To have been an actor for this long, you work with a lot of directors who don’t understand what we do, how we get there. And we all have a different process.
“I was just jonesing for so many years, watching actors not really understanding the note [from a director] or being given a note like, ‘OK, when you come in the door next time, come in with more energy.’ You’re like, ‘Give me something. Give me a story. Give me some backdrop of a feeling that makes me feel happy when I walk through the door.’ I wanted to give that to actors because I wanted that, and a lot of times I didn’t receive it.”
The difficulty comes when she’s directing herself in a scene while also trying to focus on the performances of her fellow actors. “It’s a little bit tricky because sometimes I’m like, ‘Cut, cut! I was too busy watching Olivia Cooke going, oh my God, she’s so good. Oh shit, I’m on camera.’ So you have to catch yourself.
“And you have to look at each actor differently. You have to watch if you’ve pushed too far, if you’ve talked too much. If you’ve given them too much of a story, they get heady. Some want it, and some just say, ‘Give me a line reading.’ So you have to feel everybody and appease them in their way. Otherwise you’re not going to get the performance out of them.”
As an executive producer on The Girlfriend, Wright also had a hand in the casting, though she admits it’s impossible to know how groups of actors will gel on set until the cameras start rolling. A key part of the director’s role then becomes getting the right performance from the cast.
“You watch their body of work and you’re like, ‘They’re perfect for the part. Olivia Cooke’s perfect for The Girlfriend.’ But I had no idea how she worked on set,” she says. “I didn’t know how she was going to receive my notes. And boy, do you get it in your face the first day. You’re like, ‘OK, she doesn’t like that. OK, can’t say that, can’t do that,’ because you’re strangers. You have to get to know someone while you’re in the midst of starting to work and bring a character’s performance out of that actor – and you don’t even know them yet. You don’t understand where their sensitivities are. So you have to be very patient and delicate.”
Best known for her acting work – Wright says she is asked about her roles in The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump far more than any other titles – the star always wants to direct, whether it’s a series or a movie. It just so happened that The Girlfriend is a series.
Taking on the role of lead director – Andrea Harkin (Time) helms episodes four to six – meant she got to develop the show’s visual style and tone. “I wanted it to look like a film, and it does,” she says. “It’s shot more filmic than network television. And I really wanted to start at the inception and develop this piece.” Then with Harkin joining, “it worked out beautifully.”
The Golden Globe-winning star doesn’t think she’ll ever stop acting, however. “I don’t think you need it [acting] to be able to direct, but you need it to stay in the game,” she adds. “I need it to pay my bills, because it pays. Directing doesn’t pay, and I love it with a passion. Doing both and producing like I did on The Girlfriend, I’m gonna have to take a break from wearing three hats because it tapped me out. I’m just tired.”
Wright describes her move from acting to directing as a “gift” she received on the set of House of Cards, with her first director credit coming with the season two finale. It was actually a camera operator who first suggested she try directing an episode “because I learned so much from them, and I asked eight million questions every day.”
That crew member then became her teacher in terms of camera lenses and how the series was shot. “He gave me cinema school, so I didn’t have any pressure on that. I was encouraged to do it,” she says.
By that time, House of Cards had become the standard-bearer for the potential of original streaming series, drawing a starry cast in Wright and co-star Kevin Spacey, plus feature film creatives such as executive producer David Fincher, to realise its ambition in scripted storytelling. It was based on the British political drama of the same name.
Its significance was not lost on Fincher (Fight Club, Seven), who pitched the project to Wright as the “future” of television. “He said, ‘This is the new medium, and we’re going to launch streaming. We will be the first show, and I think it will be revolutionary.’ Look at where we are today,” Wright says.
Spacey played Frank Underwood, an ambitious politician playing power games as he seeks revenge against the people who betrayed him while navigating his own rise to power. Wright’s character Claire Underwood, Frank’s wife, similarly has her own rise to power across the show’s six seasons, although that wasn’t set from the beginning.
Spacey left the series after season five following a number of sexual assault allegations against him. He was later acquitted of sexual assault against four men in the UK, and has always denied acting illegally.
“When we started the show, we only had one episode written and Claire was more arm candy on the governor [Frank],” Wright recalls. “David Fincher said to me, ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. We together will develop this female pillar, she’s going to be the pillar of the Underwood couple.’”
The first few episodes also had Claire making several speeches, which didn’t sit right with the actor. Instead, after encouragement from Fincher to develop the character herself, she determined Claire should be like a marble bust, “so everything is very still, focused and laser-sharp. She shouldn’t speak very much. When she speaks, it should be only what needs to be spoken. Let Frank be the orator,” she continues.
“So when we decided that, I was like, ‘There she is.’ Let her be a listener. Then she can decide what her response is, and most of the time it’s to correct him, redirect him, shame him for doing it wrong. And he listens to that pillar of truth. So that became the dynamic between Claire and Frank that wasn’t really on the page yet.”
That parity on screen between Frank and Claire wasn’t reflected in the salaries paid to the show’s stars, however, as Wright recalls being asked to take on three roles if she wanted to earn the same wage as Spacey – at a time when streaming series didn’t offer the same royalty agreements as US network series.
“It was difficult,” she says. “When I said I just think it’s only fair because we’re doing the same amount of work, and my character became as popular as his, they literally said, ‘Well, we can’t pay you the same as an actor, so we’re going to divvy it up to make it equal parity. Make you executive producer. And then you can direct. And then we’ll give you three different pay cheques.’”
Then when Wright pushed back and asked why she couldn’t be paid the same as an actor, “they said, ‘because you didn’t win an Academy Award.’”
Wright was in Monte-Carlo to receive the festival’s Crystal Nymph award in recognition of her screen career, which began with a long-running role in soap Santa Barbara and has included films such as Moll Flanders, Message in a Bottle, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Wonder Woman and Blade Runner 2049.
“I feel blessed to have been able to remain in this business for 40-plus years,” she says. “A lot of times, in [my] late 20s, early 30s, you were getting offered a lot of things you could have done back to back. And I chose to be really selective.
“Because I was a full-time mom and I didn’t want to leave my kids during the school year, I would only work in the summer. So I would do one movie a year. But being selective helps because I feel like you oversaturate the market with yourself when you’re in too many things. I was very strategic in that way.”
Looking ahead, she has fears about the impact AI might have on film and television – but doesn’t think technology will ever replace human actors.
“It frightens me for our industry,” she says. “The dichotomy is tough because I know it’s going to help in the medical world tremendously – saving lives, just moving with alacrity, finding cures. But everywhere else, people are going to lose jobs. People say, ‘Well, don’t you think it’ll take over acting?’ I don’t think it ever can because I don’t think it will ever get the emotion in the eyes. You’ll never feel the resonance coming from that actor.”
Like House of Cards? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Scandal: A fast-paced political thriller centring on crisis management expert Olivia Pope, who navigates Washington’s corridors of power with wit and determination.
Homeland: A gripping spy thriller following CIA officer Carrie Mathison as she tackles international espionage and political conspiracies.
The Americans: Set during the Cold War, this series follows two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American couple in suburban Washington, DC.
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tagged in: Imaginarium Productions, Prime Video, Robin Wright, The Girlfriend