My motherhood fears - by Scream star Neve Campbell

Jul 20 2008 By Steve Clark

SCREEN beauty Neve Campbell is passionate about her latest role as an eco-warrior trying to save the Earth.

In fact, the Scream star is so worried about the environment that she does not want to have children.

Neve, 34, said: "I'm really not sure about having kids. Maybe I'll shift my view in a couple of years.

"People say things like, 'You could have the child who makes a big difference to the planet'.

"But we're not talking about changes happening to the planet in 50 years. It's more likely to be 20 years and we're going to be in a mess.

"Part of me thinks it is not necessarily fair to bring kids into a world like that. It seems selfish to and it is something I have struggled with for the past few years."

Neve, whose dad Gerry is from Glasgow, plays environmentalist Holly in BBC two-part drama Burn Up.

The series - being filmed in Canada - sees her character working for a British oil giant's renewable energy division.

Holly thinks she is helping to change the company's ways, unaware she is just there as greenwash - simply to make them look good.

Neve said: "Holly is deeply committed to making change and doing good. She wants to make a difference but she doesn't realise she's been hired as greenwash.

"Then she falls for her boss, which is quite unexpected as they have very different points of view."

Neve says it was the script - penned by Simon Beaufoy, writer of The FullMonty - that made her want to do the project.

She added: "It is about a subject that is important - and could make a difference."

She stars alongside Spooks actor Rupert Penry-Jones and Bradley Whitford, best known for his Emmy-winning role of Josh Lyman in The West Wing.

Finding herself back in Canada making a drama for British TV is ironic as Canadian Neve now lives in London.

Neve's drama teacher father emigrated from Scotland to Canada as a young man and she visited relatives in Nitshill, Glasgow, in April 2000. Among them were cousin Lena Ogilvie and her 10-year-old granddaughter Diane Robertson.

Neve said: "I still have relatives - aunts, uncles and cousins - in Scotland who I met in Glasgow. They were nice and I should probably go to see them again."

Last year she married English actor John Light but working on different continents meant they have spent a fair amount of the past 12 months apart.

Neve said: "At one point we didn't see each other for two-and-a-half months. But we talked every day."

Their wedding was a low-key affair. She said: "We were going to have a big wedding but we changed our minds. So in 10 days we planned a wedding on the beach in Malibu.

"About 50 people came including my dad and his wife and two of my brothers.

It was impromptu and it turned out to be a beautiful day. We had a party back in London too.

"I feel very content and at peace now I am married. John is my best friend. We were friends for years before we got together and that's a good way to have a relationship."

Neve took ballet classes aged six and at nine she won a scholarship to Canada's National Ballet School.

She left at 14 to join the chorus of The Phantom Of The Opera in Toronto, doing 800 shows in two years. Her career as a dancer continued until, at 20, she landed a lead role in Party Of Five, the Golden Globe-winning TV drama about five siblings who grow up as orphans after their parents are killed by a drunk driver.

Neve said: "Acting began to take over when I got Party Of Five. It was the final nail in the coffin for my dancing." famous and lasted nearly a decade.

She said: "I was unprepared for fame. I hadn't even expected to be an actor.

"I was working on Party Of Five for nine months a year and during each hiatus I did a film because that meant I would have a career beyond the show I did that for seven years and it was exhausting.

"When you are young, people say you should do this job or that job. You don't question it and you don't think you can say no to work.

Now I'm older I realise you can."

Neve has been voted one of the world's most beautiful women but it is not a tag she is at ease with.

She said: "It doesn't mean anything - there are lots of stunning-looking people."

And she has had to deal with one of the downsides of fame - stalkers.

The actress said: "It was a horrible experience. Suddenly you have to hire security and that seems silly and embarrassing."

Neve became fed up with Hollywood and moved to Britain three years ago.

She said: "I lived in LA for 13 years and I never felt at home. It's all about the film industry and I started to feel uninspired.

"It was just everyone talking about their next great script idea. I got bored." Neve reckons living in London gives her more anonymity.

She added: "It is refreshing to be more anonymous there. I find it odd when celebrities say it is hard to stay away from the paparazzi as it's down to where you go out."

But fans are harder to get away from. Neve explains: "I was once in a toilet and someone knocked on the door while I was having a pee and asked for my autograph.

"They handed me a piece of paper and pen under the door. I said, 'Can I finish peeing first?'"

Burn Up is on BBC2 on Wednesday and Friday at 9pm.

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