During her time on "Party," Neve began her reign as the "Scream" Queen, playing the innocent but tough-minded Sidney Prescott, the lead character, in three "Scream" movies from 1996-2000.?
"'Scream' is witty and self-referential, which makes it above and beyond most slasher films," she said. Neve explained her approach to playing Sidney: "I came to realize that if the audience couldn't see the movie through my eyes, then they wouldn't see me at all. They weren't going to feel it and weren't going to care.
"So it was very important for me to remain reality-based within the film, because there had to be some source of reality for it to be good."
Neve earned a Saturn Award for Best Actress for the first "Scream." Two more "Scream" film followed the original, and Neve was nominated for another Saturn Award and for three MTV Movie Awards. After the third film, Neve vowed that she was finished with the horror franchise, the highest-grossing slasher genre in film history. But she changed her mind when she was approached for "Scream 4" in 2011.
Classic TV Beauties 1990s Countdown
? ? NEVE CAMPBELL as Julia Salinger in "Party of Five"
Before she built her reputation as the "Scream" Queen, Neve launched her career as the sensitive Julia, the oldest daughter of the Salinger clan. The brown-eyed brunette from Canada skillfully played the good-hearted teenager who, despite her beauty, lacked self confidence and was often attracted to abusive guys.
"Party of Five" revolved around an unusual storyline: Five children orphaned after their parents are killed in a car crash by a drunk driver.
A breakthrough series that aired for six seasons (1994-2000), "P05" offered a fresh and innovative take on teen life. Instead of focusing on the carefree and innocence of the teen years, "Party" tackled dark subjects such as death, financial survival, and alcoholism.?
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"I felt we'd done such a good trilogy that we shouldn't push our luck," she said. "Then Kevin (Williamson, the screenwriter) pitched me his idea and I thought his concept for the film was really fresh, original, new, and up to date for this generation, and I knew it would be fun to see everyone again."
Reprising her role almost a dozen years after the previous "Scream" was easy for the actress.
"It's been 15 years now that we've been doing these characters, so it was not difficult to jump into," she said after "Scream 4" was released. "I had fun watching the films again, before we started this, just to get a sense of it. It was really nice to see that they still held up well."
Neve admitted that she's never been a fan of horror films.
"I saw 'The Changeling' when I was 13 -- the one with George C. Scott -- and it scared me so much I never saw a horror film after that...I do enjoy them if I'm with a group of people, but I can't do them on my own."
Neve fulfilled a personal goal when she produced and starred in "The Company," a 2003 film, inspired by her own experiences as a dancer at Canada's National School of Ballet. She said the film spent seven years in development, and she trained extensively for two straight years prior to filming.
"I actually originally had a dance film I tried to develop at a large studio," she said in an article on www.about.com. "I realized very quickly that they were very happy to have me in a movie that happened to be about dance, as opposed to a movie about dance that happened to have me in it, which is not what I wanted to make."
Neve said she wanted to make a film "about dance itself and the process of choreography and what the dancers go through -- the athleticism and the spirtual challenges."
Neve broke her rib three days before traveling to Chicago for filming, but she was determined to work on the film.
A native of Canada, Neve was born in Guelph, Ontario to a Scottish father and Dutch mother. Her first name, Neve, is her mother's surname, a name used by her ancestors, Sephardic Jews who emigrated to Holland in the 15th century.
After watching a performance of "The Nutcracker" at age six, Neve decided to take ballet and she originally wanted to be a professional dancer. At age nine she trained at the National Ballet School of Canada, but she left dance for acting at 15 after accumulating numerous dance injuries.
"I'm always sad I left dance," Neve said. "I'm just in my element when I'm in the dance world. I'm so much more content in my heart when I'm sitting on a dance floor in a studio."
Neve's first starring role was as Daisy in the Canadian music series "Catwalk" in 1992. After appearing in several TV series and films the next two years, Neve earned the role of Julia.
"I never wanted to be an actor. It was something I found a passion for," she said in a 2011 interview with www.guardian.co.uk. "It wasn't there immediately... [but] you start to love the good moments. You realize something magical has just happened, or that you've done something people are touched by. That's addictive."
Said Mark Goldweber, a Ballet Master with Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, where the filming took place: "Neve is a beautiful and dedicated artist. Her discipline for getting back in shape after ten years off was amazing and inspiring. She made it her priority to take corrections from the Joffrey Ballet Masters and she achieved the Joffrey look in a relatively short time."
Neve added that "The pleasure I got out of being back into [dance] was phenomenal. I really feel at home when I am dancing. It's the place I am most comfortable. But the challenge is so strong and my injuries are so apparent that I understood why I needed to step out of it."
Neve broke her "no nudity" rule to star in the 2004 movie "When Will I Be Loved," a film about a sexually adventuresome young woman living in New York who explores the limits of her sexual powers.
"I've had issues in the past with nudity when I felt the nudity had nothng to do with the scene, that wwere there totally for box office draw," she said in an interview with www.moviefreak.com. "Since this was a film about sexual exploration, it made total sense to have this character in the raw.
"She's curious, she's explorative. She's also vulnerable and that made it interesting to me."
More recently, Neve guest-starred in "Grey's Anatomy," cast as Liz Shepherd, sister to Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey).
"It's like going to a school where everyone knows one another, and you're stepping in for the first day. It's nerve-wracking," Neve told www.collider.com. "I feel confident, as an actor, but as an artist, you just get nervous, no matter what. There's always something that's going to make you have butterflies."
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While the series devoted storylines on Julia and her siblings dating and developing relationships, the underlining theme was that the Salinger kids were left to struggle through life without a mother or father.
"Party" scored extremely low ratings its first season and was scheduled to be canceled.But the following season ratings improved (from No. 127 to No. 96), and the series surprisingly won the Golden Globe for Best Drama, making it one of the lowest rated shows to ever win the award. Although "PO5" continued to pick up more viewers and a loyal cadre of fans over the next four seasons, it never rated higher than No. 56 in the Nielsens.
But "PO5" garnered rave reviews from the critics. A Chicago Tribune review noted during the first season "it's an encouraging sign that the Fox network can actually supply thoughtful programming that doesn't necessarily begin and end in the bedroom." TV Guide called it "strong, heart-tugging family drama... absorbing and well cast." And People added that it would "stay with these kids until the party's over."
