Robin Wright 51 And In The Best Shape Of My Life

As the steely First Lady in House of Cards and now a fearsome warrior in Wonder Woman, Robin Wright is having a ball playing powerful, ruthless women. As she puts her devastating divorce from Sean Penn behind her, Robin tells Alex Clark where it all went so right.

A sneak peek at the opening episode of the fifth season of House of Cards. Robin Wright, who plays First Lady to Kevin Spacey’s President of the United States, stares into the camera. “I’ve been meaning to talk with you. It’s terrifying, isn’t it? The President and I have a simple request. Tell us what you see. My husband and I …” She continues chillingly, “want to protect you”.

Suddenly, we are back in the coercive, wheedling world of Frank and Claire Underwood, their menace cloaked in carefully orchestrated concern. Yet Robin Wright seems entirely, physically different from Claire when I meet her in a casual Los Angeles restaurant. Her First Lady is elegant in trademark sculpted neutrals, but she is also bodily imposing. You wonder how Robin – fine-boned, petite, delicate – fills those power outfits.

I tell her that I once showed a picture of Claire Underwood to my hairdresser to see if she could replicate the dramatic helmet of hair. Robin bursts out laughing. “Do you have any idea how much product we put in my hair?” she asks. “Three products while it’s wet, volumising, texturising, root-lift, and a lot of curling brushes and a lot of blow-drying.” Today, she says, it’s growing out because she has temporarily set Claire Underwood, who has brought her a Golden Globe and a host of nominations, to one side.

We’re here to talk about a very different interpretation of female power. In what is, essentially, her first action movie, Robin becomes the Amazon warrior General Antiope in the new Wonder Woman film. Indeed, she plays the aunt of Diana, Princess of Amazons, and chief martial trainer, complete with swords, swishing cape and breastplate.