Robin Wright in the direction of “Land,” a film about human kindness

“Just to wake up and listen to the birds, you don’t hear planes, trains or cars … anything. Just listen to nature.”

Almost alone, 8,000 feet higher up in the remote Canadian desert, actress Robin Wright is taking the outdoors instead of Washington’s wildlife. “Maybe because for six years on a‘ House of Cards ’rolling stage we weren’t very out,” he said.

“Always?” asked correspondent Lee Cowan.

“Like, never! Let’s make a real exit and go to the other end of the spectrum!” he laughed.

Wright’s latest character is a broken woman who abandons everything she knows and retires to the top of a mountain in her new film, “Land. “

“What we’ve been seeing for the last four years was just encouraging more pettiness in the world,” he said. “And I just wanted to make a movie about human kindness.”

“And do you think that’s the end of it?

“I do.”

Wright not only stars in the film, but also directs it.

Cowan said, “Surely you didn’t choose any logistically easy film to be your directorial debut, did you?”

“No! No, I didn’t think about it at the time.”

Parts of this elevated terrain in Alberta can offer four seasons, sometimes in a single day. “You have four thousand people asking you questions even for ten minutes:‘ Where do you want this, what are we doing with this, da da da, what goal do we want ’- and then you have to jump in front of the camera and you would have a scene and I would just make it take something away from me, and then I would dry up and get very angry with myself. “

She is used to touching both sides of the camera. He directed several episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” including the season finale. Still, she remains one of the small groups of women in Hollywood who receive the reins to lead them.

Wright said, “Should I do it? Can I? Yes, yes. You can do it. You just have to be committed to your strength and your confidence that you can do it.”

Their roles are usually strong, even intimidating women. Wright has a softer side, of course. His Instagram proves it. Glamorous shots, yes, but if you ask the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the pajamas Wright wears are life-saving.

Two decades of civil war have left the country shattered. Rebels often use rape as a tool of war.

Wright said, “When you are raped in this country, your family renounces you because it’s your fault. Their family has been dismantled, they live in refugee camps, walking three miles to get water out of a refugee camp. And without knowing if they will be raped or killed every day of their lives. “

Therefore, the money from the sales of these pajamas (under the Pour le Femme brand) is intended to help women in Congo and other conflict zones around the world.

If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like her ex-husband, actor-activist Sean Penn, maybe, but those days are long gone. His two children with Penn are now grown and Wright remarried. He does his best to keep that part of life away from the glare of the spotlights.

Cowan asked, “Does it take a lot of work to be private, though?”

“I don’t know, right? You just become more aware of being private: you know what to share and what not to share in interviews, things like that.”

Wright grew up in Texas, but moved to Southern California, where, as a teenager, he began pursuing roles in John Hughes films. “That’s all you wanted: you wanted to be in a John Hughes movie!” she said.

“Sixteen candles?” Breakfast Club “?”

“Oh yeah! I read for all of them, several times. And I didn’t get any.”

“Damn, Molly Ringwald!” Cowan laughed.

But before the 80s were over, he landed the part of a princess in “The Bride Princess.”

Cowan asked, “Is there anything you haven’t been asked about this film after all these years?”

“I always have the same question over and over again: Do you believe in true love, as the movie says?” she said. “Yes, yes. And they always ask for Andre the Giant. Everyone wants to know what it was like.”

“Well, now I have to ask, how was it?”

“The sweetest puppy. Massive, soft giant.”

A few years later came her role as Jenny in “Forrest Gump.”

“It’s definitely opened a lot of doors for you, I imagine.” Cowan said. “Was it a little overwhelming?”

“It’s what you want, but I was so immersed in being a mom, why don’t you just follow your career? You have to become a star and then that star fades away? Too much? I knew I never wanted to be that. “

She set the pace herself. When “House of Cards” first appeared, she was about 40 years old, but before she took it she still had questions for executive producer David Fincher: “I have no desire to take time out of my life to be the candy of arm of a senator in a program or a governor.And he said to me, “I promise you, it won’t be.”

His last role is another kind of fort. Her skills as a director are also different. But it’s hardly over with any.

Cowan asked, “Do you know what the next one will be?”

“I want to drive more,” he laughed.

“Do you ever see yourself as a cameraman for good?”

“For good? No. For good, no, I don’t think so.”

After all, the view from his professional career is pretty good.

To watch a “Land” trailer, click on the video player below:

For more information:

Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Joseph Frandino.