Before Neve Campbell earned her stripes as one of our preeminent modern scream queens — thanks to her work in “The Craft” and five (and counting!) turns in the iconic “Scream” franchise — the Canadian star was a budding ballerina. She caught the itch early, thanks to a performance of “The Nutcracker” she saw at the tender age of six, eventually training at the vaunted National Ballet of Canada starting at the age of nine. A series of injuries ended her ballet career, but even when she moved into theater and film, the ballet bug was hard to shake.
It even led to her first (and, at least for now, only) screenwriting credit. Campbell had long wanted to make a film about the nitty-gritty everyday life of ballet dancers, and in 2003, her idea became the script for “The Company,” which no less than Robert Altman directed for what would become his penultimate film. Campbell also starred as the film’s central character, a talented ballerina struggling her way through the ins and outs of the Joffrey Ballet.
Two decades later, the impact of “The Company” and Campbell’s intense connection to the source material have catalyzed yet another new chapter in her career. Campbell serves as executive producer of Chelsea McMullan’s documentary “Swan Song,” inspired by some of the insights in “The Company,” with this one focused on Campbell’s own alma mater, the National Ballet of Canada.
While McMullan and fellow producer and writer Sean O’Neill initially started to work on the film in February 2020, it was — understandably — delayed by the pandemic, which temporarily shut down many arts institutions, including the National Ballet. They eventually started production two years later, as the company was preparing its postponed launch on a new take on the classic “Swan Lake,” as directed by revered former dancer Karen Kain, who plans on retiring after the show.
While the documentary (much like “The Company”) follows a group of dancers as they prepare to launch an ambitious new show, it’s the beloved and charismatic Kain who really takes center stage. That was paramount to Campbell.
“Karen is one of the reasons I’m an artist today,” Campbell told IndieWire during a recent interview. “I saw her do ‘Swan Lake’ when I was nine years old. I was on the edge of my seat. She literally defied gravity. I remember meeting her and asking her to sign my pointe shoes on a street corner in Toronto.” She added with a smile, “I wish you could have seen her dance.”
While much of the film tracks Kain’s complex journey getting the show off the ground (while also preparing to say goodbye to the world that has been her center for so long), McMullan and O’Neill also wanted to show how that process impacts the show’s dancers, from star Jurgita Dronina to company member Shaelynn Estrada.
“I liked the truth that they wanted to speak of,” the producer said. “I liked that they admired about dancers what I admire about dancers, which is what incredible artists and athletes they are and how truly committed they are, despite the challenges, emotional, physical, all of it. They wanted to enter into the company, not only to observe the production being created, but also observing the dancers and Karen’s experience as a first-time director and the challenges of just production and the scariness of putting up something big and hoping it doesn’t fail.”
Kain and her company face all manner of challenges along the way, though one of the most important is the reckoning they face regarding the color of the tights the dancers wear. Uniformity is essential in dance, they’ve long been told, particularly as it applies to the corps de ballet, who have always been expected to sport white or pink tights to maintain the same line of movement from head to toe.
But what about dancers who are not light-skinned? Kain eventually decides to do away with tights altogether. (Check out an exclusive clip from the film below, in which Kain ponders the question.)
“I was also really touched by the fact that they wanted to investigate racism in the ballet world, and that they were able to shed a light on that and how Karen was able to bravely make a shift,” Campbell said. “I don’t think I had considered what it would feel like for someone [not white] to put pink tights on, and that it wasn’t just pink tights to change the line of their movement. I knew that we didn’t have enough people of color in the ballet world, I knew that that was an issue, and I knew that it was more challenging for people of color to get into a company.”
The tights aren’t just tights, either in “Swan Song” or the wider ballet world, and Campbell is so pleased with the ways this particular example might open up other’s minds. It certainly did that for her.
“I have watched that shift over the years, and it still needs to shift a lot,” she said. “For me, whitewashing my pointe shoes was just to make them match my tights, I didn’t think anything beyond that. I didn’t think of what that would’ve meant to somebody whose skin was not white. … I have witnessed more people of color coming into the ballet world, and we now have prima ballerinas of color, which is so inspirational for young dancers of color. … Almost the entire look of a company has changed, body types, all of that, but I feel like there’s more room for lots of different people.”
In the film, Kain’s choice to nix the tights has unexpected consequences, as Estrada (who is a woman of color) reveals that she’s more comfortable in tights because of existing scars on her legs. It’s a lightbulb moment within a lightbulb moment, and one that speaks to a deeper truth beyond the color of someone’s tights.
“It’s not something any of us would’ve considered until she came forward with her issues and her experience and what she was worried about,” Campbell said. “The fact that she was supported immediately was refreshing to see. Whether it’s the ballet world or any world, I think we just don’t always know people’s full stories. And I think it sheds light on that and that we have to be open to other people’s stories and experiences.”
As to how that sort of thinking might apply to other areas — like the film world — Campbell was reflective and hopeful. Asked how she sees other industries reckoning with their own racist issues, she said, “We need this change. It had to happen. It should have happened a lot sooner, but at least now there’s a big push, and there’s protections being put in place so that there are more opportunities for everybody. I think it’s necessary and it is going to shift the types of films that are made. It is going to shift the stories that we’re telling, but that’s OK, because it’s time. Whatever it takes for a change to happen is a positive thing.”
Campbell’s entertainment career has always been tied up with her background in dance, and not just when it comes to the kinds of stories she wants to tell, but the ways in which she approaches them. Asked what ballet taught her about hard work, Campbell had a wealth of answers.
“Discipline, for sure. When you’re a ballet dancer, there’s so much competition. There’s no room for questioning the people in charge,” she said. “When you’re a young actor or coming into the business, you have to be willing to listen. You have to be willing to take direction. You have to be willing to fight. You have to work hard, and I had learned those qualities already, so I was able to bring that into my career. As I’ve gotten older, I’m also finding my voice, which has been a positive thing. As a dancer, because you feel you don’t have the right to speak up or that there is no place for you to speak up, earlier on in my career, there are times where I wish I had spoken up and I might’ve done things differently now. But that also just comes with age, doesn’t it?”
Another part of her career she’s maturing into: producing. Campbell also produced “The Company,” plus the ’90s rom-com “Too Smooth” and the 2013 TV movie “An Amish Murder,” but her experience on “Swan Song” seems to have lit a fresh fire in her when it comes to working on this side of the camera.
“I haven’t done a huge amount [of producing], but I have had the opportunity to make things that mean something to me already,” Campbell said. “Because it is a lot of work to have the gem of an idea and spend the amount of time that it takes to bring it to fruition, it has to be something you’re passionate about. I do have a few pieces [I’d like to produce]. I’ve got some books that I’ve found that I think could be really wonderful, and so I’m going to try and push those along. I can’t do something just because I think it’s going to be successful. That doesn’t work for me.”
Campbell hasn’t written since “The Company,” and while she doesn’t totally rule out getting back into it, producing seems to be exciting her the most these days. She’s thinking a lot about her own philosophy when it comes to the gig, and how it relates to how she feels about all art.
“It starts with: Would I be interested in watching this? Is this something that is my cup of tea, that’s my taste, that I think is interesting and could be fascinating to others as well? Does it say something that maybe means something or might touch someone in some way?” she said. “That’s what art is. That’s each of us trying to communicate our experience with one another. … What I like about being behind the camera, is that thinking, ‘Hey, here’s a seed. Let’s throw some water on it and some sunshine and see if we can make it grow.’”
Sunshine isn’t typically associated with Campbell, who is about to start work on her much-anticipated return to the “Scream” franchise after a public pay dispute over the sixth film and a series of major shake-ups both in front of and behind the camera. Asked if she’s up to date on the current crop of horror films and fellow scream queens, Campbell offered an unexpected answer.
“I’m afraid I’m not. I should! I struggle to watch horror movies, I really do,” Campbell said. “I’ve always felt like it’s just not my thing. I don’t like the experience of sitting and watching and getting scared. Some people really love it, but I also know they can be fantastic. So I probably should sit down and watch some of them.”
Despite Campbell’s own personal reticence toward enjoying horror films on her own time, she’s very excited to get back to “Scream” in its seventh installment, this one directed by original scribe Kevin Williamson. This is, after all, a star who seems to love being busy.
“I’m very, very happy it’s happening,” Campbell said. “We were supposed to start in September, but we’re going to start in December now because of some scheduling stuff with Kevin and myself and having that all aligned. And actually, I think it’s a good thing, because we’re going to be able to have the time to get it really right. So I’m very excited about it.”
A Greenwich Entertainment release, “Swan Song” will be available in theaters and on VOD on Friday, July 26.
