Whatever Happened To Anne Collins From State Of Play?

Back in 2009, the movie "State of Play" featured political thrills in Washington, D.C., examining the privatization of Homeland Security as well as the relationship between journalists and elected officials. The film had an all-star cast that included Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels. Also joining the festivities was actress Robin Wright, who at the time was still credited under her married name, Robin Wright Penn. 

Wright played Anne Collins, the wife of Ben Affleck's Stephen Collins, in a story based on a six-part BBC miniseries. In the film's version of events, a congressional researcher (Maria Thayer) falls onto the Metro tracks, and a pickpocket (LaDell Preston) is murdered in two crimes that turn out not only to be related, but to be connected to Congressman Collins, who was engaged in an affair with the researcher. Fictional Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey (Crowe) and blogger Della Frye (McAdams) are on the case. Convoluting the circumstances of the plot, Cal and the congressman are former college roommates, who both had sexual relationships with Anne (Wright). 

The New Republic called the movie "not bad" but "forgettable," which more-or-less sums up the critical response at the time. Wright, who made her name in the 1980s as a regular player on the soap "Santa Barbara" and the cult classic "The Princess Bride," went on to have a rich career (still ongoing), despite the tepid reception earned by "State of Play."

Wright's most recent appearance onscreen came in "Zack Snyder's Justice League." She also appeared in the original "Justice League" film from 2017, although she wasn't credited. As part of the DC Extended Universe, she has also appeared in both "Wonder Woman" movies to date — the original from 2017 and "Wonder Woman 1984" from 2020. She plays General Antiope, sister of Queen Hippolyta and Diana's instructor in the art of combat. In the first movie, she died taking a bullet meant for her niece, but she was able to appear in later films thanks to the magic of flashbacks.

"I got the opportunity to play a part where I get to teach Wonder Woman to be a warrior? Come on," Wright told Flicks and the City Clips about the original Gal Gadot-starring film. "It was a hoot." 

She said she believed her character had a sixth sense about the coming war, and that the basis of her connection with Diana (Gadot) derived from her ability to instruct the young Wonder Woman without the subjectivity of a mother's feelings. Her presence in the film launched a very popular meme, showing herself as Princess Buttercup from "The Princess Bride" and also featuring Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and as General Leia in the later Disney-produced Star Wars movies. Princesses grow up to be warriors, as the empowering meme suggests.

Among the many characters Wright has portrayed since her turn as Anne in "State of Play," the longest-lasting was her role as Claire Underwood on the first Netflix original series, "House of Cards." On the political thriller (also based on a BBC series, which was in turn based on a Michael Dobbs novel), she plays the wife of Congressman Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) for the show's entire six-season run.

Wright was actually hesitant to take on the role of Claire initially, according to Entertainment Weekly, because she wanted to keep doing films. And then there was the role itself: "I don't want to just play a woman who's arm candy to a politician in a TV show," she said at the time. "And [executive producer David Fincher] said, 'Don't worry. It's only the beginning, season 1. Claire Underwood is going to evolve into a very complex — if we want to say complex — and corrupt female character.'" He was right; Claire eventually went on to take the presidency from the cold, dead hands of her husband.

When Kevin Spacey was fired (and his character killed off) due to accusations of sexual assault and harassment in 2017, that left Wright to carry the show for one last season before "House of Cards" ended. Wright actually weighed in on the matter with Spacey at the time. In fact, Variety reported that she spearheaded the campaign to have one final season of the series, and finish the story out as intended.

In 2017, Wright made Forbes' list of the highest paid TV actresses thanks to "House of Cards," which yielded $9 million of earnings that year. She might have ranked even higher had her quest for pay equity with fellow star Spacey had succeeded. She told The Rockefeller Foundation (via CNN Money) that, when she discovered Claire was more popular than Frank, she asked to be paid the same as Spacey — but that increase on her $420,000-per-episode salary (or $5.5 million a year by Forbes' calculation) never came. Media Rights Capital, an investor in "House of Cards," said the raise was not possible because Spacey was a founding producer.

Nevertheless, Wright's prolific body of work, which has also included big movies from the 2010s like "Blade Runner 2049," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Everest," and "Moneyball," has earned her quite a bit of moolah. The Cinemaholic pegs her net worth as of early 2020 at $65 million.

Wright started directing thanks to "House of Cards" — she directed 10 episodes of the show from 2014-2018, an experience she told Variety was "an opportunity to have film school lessons on set each day." Once that Netflix series was over, however, she moved on to her first feature directing project, "Land." 

The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and February, and was released to select theaters on February 12, 2021. It's currently available on demand at places like Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and on other streaming services. It's about Edee Mathis (Wright), a grieving lawyer who decides to live off the grid, and gets help from a local hunter (Demián Bichir) to survive her circumstances. 

"What resonated was the idea of losing something in your life that made you who you are and [asking] how you survive the pain and grief," Wright said (via Variety). "There's a template [that says] you do this, and then you heal and move on. But that's not the case. It's a messy process. I thought the script had something about how to survive your past. To recover, a part of you has to die." She said she took on the project in part because a woman-led project in the survival genre was rare. 

Now that she's cut her teeth on "Land," she's already got another directing job lined up — she'll be helming the last two episodes of the final season of "Ozark," according to USA Today.