Scream 4's Neve Campbell: 'I know ghosts exist because I lived with one'

Scream 4's Neve Campbell: 'I know ghosts exist because I lived with one'

 

The Scream 4 actress on befriending the supernatural, having a nervous breakdown at 14 and being a proud Londoner

'At 23, I developed alopecia. I was horribly overworked and going through a divorce,' said Neve Campbell

Neve Campbell could not be further removed from her most famous on-screen persona. As the endangered heroine Sidney Prescott in the Scream movie series, she spent her time frantically fighting off knife-wielding maniacs in fright masks. Now, after a ten-year hiatus, she returns for a fourth round of the comedy horror.

A childhood ballet prodigy in her native Canada, Campbell made her acting breakthrough in the teen drama series Party Of Five.

Despite the mainstream success of the Scream franchise, she has specialised in smaller, independent movies including 2003’s The Company, which she co-wrote, produced and starred in. She has also appeared in London’s West End.

Now 37 and twice divorced, she lives alone in north London.

I might have been born in Canada but I’m now a proud Londoner.

I moved here from LA six years ago – I felt culturally deprived out there. In London I get inspired every time I walk out of my front door. The city oozes culture and never fails to fascinate me. I can spend hours walking around Columbia Road flower market or the antiques market on Camden Passage. The only downside to London is that people aren’t always so well-mannered. Londoners can be quite rude. Wherever you go in Canada strangers are friendly and polite. London could do with some of that.

My big regret is leaving school at 15.

At the time it seemed like the only sane decision. I was dancing professionally and I had the opportunity to do musical theatre on a big scale. But it means there are huge gaps in my knowledge. I’m especially aware of that in England where I find myself in conversation with well-educated people and I sit there wishing I could hold my own in literature, politics, geography and history. 

I know that ghosts exist because I’ve seen one.

A few years ago I moved into a haunted house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, with some friends. It turned out that it was inhabited by the ghost of a woman who had been murdered there in 1991. Doors would repeatedly slam, windows would open and ashtrays would fly off dressers. Then there were times when the ghost would actually walk into the room. After a while it felt normal. I’d pass her in the hallway and casually wish her good morning.

'After the Scream films I was deluged by scripts for jaw-droppingly awful horror flicks. As soon as Scream 4 (above) is released, the process will start all over again,' said Neve

I turn down 99 per cent of the scripts that come my way because they’re terrible.

You do one type of film and all you’re offered for the next couple of years are inferior versions of that movie. After the Scream films I was deluged by scripts for jaw-droppingly awful horror flicks. As soon as Scream 4 is released, the process will start all over again. And I also get offered reality shows. Do I really look like the kind of person who wants to be in a jungle eating insects?  

The horrors of modern technology are far more terrifying than any zombie film.

The scariest thing is how the internet is removing us all from reality. No one seems to communicate properly any more. I try hard not to get too attached to gadgets or to the internet. I’m on Facebook under an assumed name but I hardly ever look at it. I don’t need to know that some old friend of mine is in a supermarket buying loo roll. 

Where it all started: Neve with Rose McGowan in Scream

I had a nervous breakdown when I was 14.

I was studying at the National Ballet School and found it incredibly challenging. Dance was all-consuming. Outside school I was deeply unhappy and didn’t have the tools to cope. The stress got so extreme that I just broke down. Then, at 23, I developed alopecia. I was horribly overworked and going through a divorce. Also, I had stalkers and started receiving threatening mail. I was so distressed by it all that my hair started falling out. Life hasn’t always been a bowl of cherries. 

I’ve suffered more injuries than you’ve had hot dinners.

My list goes on forever. I’ve had bunions, broken toes and fallen arches. I’ve suffered from tendonitis in my Achilles. I’ve had torn ligaments, snapping-hip syndrome, runner’s knee, pulled calves, sprained ankles, sprained wrists, pulled hamstrings and been treated for shin splints. I’ve had sciatic problems in my back and arthritis in my neck. And while in training for the latest Scream movie my metatarsal collapsed. I was committed to three months of action and fight sequences so I had to ignore medical advice, with the result that I now need regular physical therapy. I suppose you could safely say that I’m accident-prone.

Neve with Denise Richards in Wild Things

People get weird when someone famous is in their vicinity.

It’s so overwhelming for them that they lose all sense of how absurdly they are behaving. About ten years ago at Disneyworld, I popped into the loo and was going about my business when these people knocked on the cubicle door and said, ‘Would you mind signing this?’ Before I could with respond with, ‘Maybe this isn’t quite the right moment,’ a pen and sheet of paper was pushed under the door. They got their autograph. I figured they deserved it for their sheer audacity. 

I feel less famous now that I live in England.

Here I take the Underground every day and I don’t need to wear a disguise. Nobody looks at anyone on the Tube so they’re not going to make an exception for me. It’s the best place to be anonymous. I often forget how big I am in the States as I’m recognised wherever I go and I get followed. I love the relative anonymity of London.

I took to modelling like a duck to Tarmac.

I only lasted a few months. I just hated it. I’d been training as a dancer, which takes talent to do. To spend my time putting on clothes and standing in front of a camera looking pretty didn’t appeal to me in any way.

I’ve always been very stubborn, sometimes to an impossible degree.

Once I’ve decided I’m right about something, nothing and nobody is going to sway me. That said, I’m willing to argue my corner until I’m blue in the face. At the end of it I’ll still believe I’m right.

I was picked on at school.

The other kids even had a song about how ugly I was. And my big brother Christian used to chase me with a butcher’s knife around the house. Then he’d capture me in a blanket and hold me under it so that I’d scream and scream. It’s probably the reason I am terrified of closed spaces and knives, which is rather ironic given the Scream films.

‘Scream 4’ is released on April 15