By LOUIS B. HOBSON --
HOLLYWOOD -- Life has not been one big party for Canada's Scream queen Neve Campbell.
By her own admission, she had a restrictive childhood, suffered a nervous breakdown at 14 and was supporting herself and her older brother, Christian, by the time she was 17.
She seems to have buffered as many knocks and as much angst as Julia Salinger, the orphan she plays on Party of Five.
The popular Fox series has made Campbell, at 24, a millionaire and a bona fide teen queen - her latest film, Wild Things, opens on Friday. There are dozens of Web sites devoted to every thing from her haunted house to her wardrobe and diet regime.
She now drives a Porsche, which she parks in the driveway of her Hollywood Hills home, and has a closet filled with designer clothes.
That doesn't mean Campbell is exempt from her share of grief and personal turmoil.
Last year, she separated from her husband, Canadian actor Jeff Colt. The two met six years ago when Campbell was starring as a dancer in the Toronto company of Phantom of the Opera and Colt, an aspiring actor, was tending bar at intermissions.
The couple married two years ago so Colt could move to Los Angeles to live with Campbell and work as an actor.
"My mom is an actress who ran her own dinner theatre in Guelph and my dad was a drama teacher. They separated. It's something that impacted my life from an early age," recalls Campbell.
She describes herself as a quiet rebel.
"My father's family came from lower-class Glasgow. We were not encouraged to express our emotions. It was considered bad manners to complain about anything. I escaped through dance."
Before her 10th birthday, Campbell was enrolled at the National Ballet School but had to drop out when she suffered a nervous breakdown four years later. She insists her breakdown had nothing to do with eating disorders.
"I watched too many of my friends suffer from anorexia and bulimia to ever let it happen to me. I've only thrown up three times in my life and that was due to flu.
"I love myself too much to ever abuse my body and I also like to eat."
Campbell says her undoing at the ballet school was largely because, "it was a horrible atmosphere where one's self worth was beaten into submission.
"I don't regret the experience because it prepared me for my life today. I think I'm better able to handle my celebrity as a result."
WORKING ON A DANCE MOVIE
Campbell has built herself a dance studio in her house and is working on a dance movie she hopes to produce and star in next summer.
"I have all the typical dance injuries. My feet are an absolute mess and I have arthritis in my knees and feet but dance is still my greatest passion."
In Wild Things, she plays a scheming punk teenager who accuses her guidance counsellor (Matt Dillon) of raping her.
It's a purposely trashy, heightened thriller that pokes fun at the old film noir genre.
"It was so much fun playing the bad girl. I went out in Miami in my punk makeup and wardrobe. Clerks refused to serve me in stores or followed me around to make sure I wasn't stealing anything.
"It made me understand why these kids rebel in this way."
It's not just Campbell's look that defies her good-girl image. Her character has explicit lesbian love scenes with co-star Denise Richards (Starship Troopers).
"I had absolutely no trepidation about these scenes but any sex scene is inherently difficult to film. Denise and I drank some tequila and a little wine to put ourselves at ease."
To prove she was not embarrassed by her new image, Campbell took her mother to the Hollywood premiere of Wild Things.
"She grabbed my hand to let me know it was fine. That meant so much to me."
$5 MILLION TO SCREAM AGAIN
Campbell confirms that Miramax Films has offered her $5-million US to star in Scream 3 next spring.
"I've told them my participation will depend entirely on what other projects are available for me at that time. I have such a small window to make feature films.
"The Scream films were great fun but I'd rather not repeat myself."
In addition to Wild Things, Campbell has filmed a cameo in the Mike Myers' film Studio 54 and has produced the independent film Hairshirt, with her brother Christian, who starred on the short-lived TV series, Malibu Shores.
"We hope to premiere Hairshirt at this year's Toronto Film Festival. I'll take any opportunity I can to return to Canada. I miss Toronto desperately," says Campbell.
And just how haunted is her Hollywood home?
"That's one of those little stories that has been blown out of all proportion," insists Campbell.
"Apparently someone was murdered in the house. A couple of my friends said they saw the ghost. I've never seen it but there all these stories on the Internet and in the supermarket tabloids claiming I commune with my ghost on a regular basis."
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