• Tweet

  • Postal service

  • Share

  • Relieve

  • Become PDF

  • Purchase Copies

  • Print

A dancer at 10, a model at fourteen, and a soap opera actor at 18, Wright catapulted to stardom in the film The Princess Helpmate at age 21. Marriage and children followed, and although she prioritized family unit over films for many years, she still squeezed in several acclaimed performances. In 2013, she signed on to play Claire Underwood in Netflix's testify House of Cards, helping to launch the streaming Television era. Now she directs and acts and is a cofounder of Pour Les Femmes, a social enterprise that supports women in conflict zones around the world.

Zack DeZon/Getty Images

HBR: What was it similar to start your career at such a young age?

Wright: I was a dancer first. I really believed that I was going to go exist in the chorus line on Broadway. Merely I also couldn't wait to get out of America and explore the globe. I did some traveling, and when I got to Paris I idea, "I don't want to leave," so I did that modeling thing. It was the only style to pay rent. I got signed past a modeling agency, and I concluded up staying nearly a yr. I didn't go to higher. I grew up with cute strangers.

Is there annihilation you lot wish y'all could tell your younger cocky?

I wish everyone could take the confidence at that age to build a boundary bubble. You'll inevitably become scars from other people—because you're immature, naive, vulnerable. And so you really have to know: What is your direction? What is your purpose? What practice you desire to do?

What did yous learn early on on that nevertheless serves yous today?

On Santa Barbara, we were sometimes doing xviii-hour days, and information technology was an 60 minutes-plus drive dwelling house, so I often merely slept in my dressing room at NBC Studios. You had to manage your time, your sanity, and your allowed organisation. Just what I really learned was the technical side of performing. We worked with iii cameras at all times. How exercise you not only remember your lines merely also when you need to turn a fleck to the left to favor photographic camera one or at which line you need to face photographic camera three. At that age, I was too working with older, experienced actors and watching and learning from them.

When you lot got your large break with The Princess Bride, some of your costars were legends of the stage and screen. Did that make you nervous? How did you prepare?

I was very nervous. Thankfully I grew upward with a British stepfather, so I could main the accent, otherwise it would have been really daunting. But I remember feeling the demand to fix for every scene—go into my quiet space, play music, get ready. Yous're so worried about not achieving perfection. When yous've washed it for 30 years, yous grow up and across that. It's about similar you can flip a switch. The greatest gift is failing—failing in a scene, in front of the camera, and then tightening up your bootlaces, putting your caput up, and going in and trying once again. It was on that shoot that I got the bug. I loved doing film. Information technology was so collaborative at the time. And working with these icons—legendary directors, producers, actors—I simply kept taking information technology in like a sponge.

What are the interpersonal dynamics on a film set similar? How do you build trust and creative chemistry with cast and crew members whom y'all oasis't necessarily worked with before?

I think it's respectful to only sit dorsum, notice, heed, and let yourself to exist accustomed. When you're entering a gear up where people take worked together in the past, y'all're walking into a family unit. And when it'due south a new grouping, it also takes some work. You demand to take patience and humility.

Hollywood's not an industry known for patience and humility. How practise you lot navigate that?

The well-nigh important thing when you're directing is to show kindness. Information technology creates an free energy on the set up, where anyone tin say, "I don't know the answer to that question. Let's have a give-and-take. Let's collaborate. Yous bring your ideas to the table. I'll bring mine. And let'south decide what's best for the project."

Can an actor create that environment too?

Yous can certainly try. I love working with people in that fashion because they show you things that yous might never run into. Nosotros're all architects of the building. It'due south curious to me that they say, "directed past." A film or show isn't directed by one person. It's directed by everybody.

Afterward big hits like The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump, how did you think about next steps?

There was some pressure: Stay in the game, or you will be forgotten. Just I chose non to adhere to that, considering I had a long-term vision. I knew I wanted to act until I couldn't anymore, so I needed to be selective. Where are yous in your life, spiritually and mentally, when projects come your fashion? Do yous connect with material? I would see what resonated. Acting is such an emotional job. Information technology's most like going to therapy every 24-hour interval, because y'all're dissecting and embodying a character and getting to the depths of who that person is. There were some roles that I didn't feel I was set up to take on. I knew somebody else would be so much better.

Just shouldn't you challenge yourself sometimes? Say "I'1000 not ready, merely I'll try anyway"?

That came very belatedly, well into my 40s. You know, you lot're typecast a lot in this industry, and for so many years, while I was raising my kids and choosing to do one projection a year at about, I was always cast equally the pained, soulful woman. Just I did want to interruption out of that box, and House of Cards was the catalyst. Claire Underwood was the well-nigh venal character. She couldn't have been more than of a departure for me.

Ages 20 to 40 are prime number time for female actors. Why did you decide to prioritize family over work during that menstruation?

That was a no-brainer. I always wanted to exist a mom, and my kids came first. Of course, I often got the message that I should do more. But I think it's squeamish to keep people wanting.

And so, when your children were grown, came House of Cards. David Fincher has said he had to beg you lot to have the part of Claire. Why was it a difficult sell? And what finally convinced you?

I didn't want to practice television. I'd been stuck on Santa Barbara for years and remembered how hard it was to do those long hours and memorize 10 to fifteen pages of dialogue a day. I loved moving picture. I loved that you got to travel and feel other cultures and play different characters instead of being stuck with one. Only David said, "Trust me. This is going to be revolutionary. You will have 13 hours to tell your story, and people volition have the choice to sentry it whenever they choose." I said, "Simply what about the office? She'south basically the governor's arm candy, and it doesn't really interest me to just be a political leader's wife." And he said, "No. We're going to build this grapheme together. She'll ultimately go Lady Macbeth to his Richard 3." I trust him so much. I love his taste, his movies, his mind. And so I said, "OK, let'southward go."

How did you starting time directing episodes?

The producers and the showrunners asked me: "Would yous similar to do it?" I was scared out of my wits, of class, but I had an incredible crew. Our camera operator had been shooting movies for more than 37 years, and he was like, "I've got your back. You're going to larn as you do it." Information technology was such a gift that I started directing on that show. I felt really safe.

Afterwards the corruption allegations against Kevin Spacey and his divergence, how did you lot and the rest of the team effigy out your path forrad?

Because the climate was so hot at that fourth dimension, we shut downward. Nosotros took off almost two months and deliberated: "Should we resume or shut down permanently?" We decided that nosotros wanted to give the fans a shut to the show and, equally important, keep our crew and actors employed. We couldn't just pull the rug out and say, "I know you were paying for your kid'southward college tuition, but deplorable." To finish was the correct thing to practice.

As you stepped in the lead role, what kind of pressure did you feel personally?

It wasn't really pressure. It was merely more work. Information technology flowed. It was like, "OK. Continue your strength, because y'all're going to end this puppy off." And ironically, the storyline didn't shift that much, because we were ever going to exist split in that final season. She was going to get exist president, and he was going to join the private sector.

How did yous decide what to do next?

By the stop I just loved directing, especially seeing actors evolve. You requite them a note, and they just transform right in front end of you. It's and then invigorating. And I actually wanted to do more of that.

You recently directed and acted in a feature flick, Land. Did that larger-scale projection feel scarier?

Not really. I had such an incredible team of producers, who, again, have been in the concern for xx or 30 years. And when everybody knows their job then well, you lot've got them as a backbone. Especially when you're directing yourself and tin't always be just behind the camera, you accept to trust in those people around yous and know that they have the same vision as you practise for the projection.

In that location's a large button for more than multifariousness in Hollywood—not just in casting simply also in assembling crews. The #MeToo movement has as well made waves throughout the industry. As a female person director, practise you lot feel similar the power dynamics are changing?

I do. Is it considering the industry was pressured to change? Of course. But the crack is in the ceiling, and we just have to keep pushing, amplifying our voices, staying in the game.

Your other passion project is supporting women in the Congo and other conflict zones through your foundation and loungewear business concern, Cascade Les Femmes. Why start a social enterprise?

Over 10 years ago, I was informed about the crunch in the Congo and the fact that it'southward continued to the minerals used in our technological devices. I was flabbergasted. In and around these mines, the militias have over. They recruit the men. They rape the women. They leave them for dead. I felt a borough responsibility. I'm on the cell phone all 24-hour interval, and it's carrying coltan, which is what the militias are afterwards. I finally went to visit some of these women who had been rescued to hear their stories and ask them what they needed. And they said, "Nosotros need a voice because no one hears us. Nobody knows what's going on. Companies are ownership these minerals, and information technology's perpetuating this problem."

I was working on House of Cards at the time, very shut to Washington, DC, so I would have the train up and try to make it to see Hillary Clinton, who was then Secretarial assistant of Land. I wanted her to become protection on the ground for these women, enforce transparent sourcing for every electronics company, clean upward other dirty merchandise, similar blood diamonds, only I but wasn't getting anywhere. So one of my oldest friends, Karen Fowler, who is a designer and has a wearable line, said, "Why don't we do a sleepwear line"—because we love pajamas and couldn't detect our perfect ones on the market—"and make information technology a give-back visitor, where part of the proceeds go to these civil society groups that bring women in and give them vocational skill preparation and psychological help?"

That's how it began—as a way to amplify the voices of the Congolese women and requite them work. Nosotros wanted every person who purchased our sleepwear to know that they were helping a woman in need. We too focused on beingness sustainable because fashion is one of the well-nigh wasteful industries. We're doing biodegradable plastic garment bags and recyclable shipping packages. Nosotros practice fair trade. Nosotros have workshops, not huge factories, and we have quality command people on the ground making sure that there's no corruption, no child labor, everything is clean.

How involved exercise you get in the business?

I pattern with Karen, every season. And then she's on the workshop floor, and I'chiliad out talking nearly information technology.

How do you measure out success?

I think it'southward always been to not buy into what lodge tells you lot—like "If you leave and don't practice a moving picture a year, you lot're done." Only no. If you accept conventionalities in yourself, that energy, you practise it your fashion. And I only always felt that in my bones. Maybe having children at such a immature age helped. I knew they were the priority, so everything else followed from there.

A version of this article appeared in the January–Feb 2022 event of Harvard Business organization Review.