• August 09, 1999
• Vol. 52
• No. 5

Onward, Christian

Neve Campbell's Big Brother Shows He Has a Trick of His Own

For Christian Campbell, playing a gay man in the new Tori Spelling indie comedy Trick was painful. It wasn't gender politics that rubbed him the wrong way—"I'm supposed to do roles that pull me in all directions," he says—but the razor burn he got from a kissing scene. "The stubble, it hurt!" he laughs.

After parts in the NBC drama Malibu Shores and the William Shatner sci-fi series Tek War, Trick has been a treat for Christian, 27. It has also helped him emerge from the shadow of his little sister, Party of Five's Neve, with whom he costarred in Hairshirt, a comedy they coproduced that—was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. "He's a born performer," says Neve, 25, who says that as a kid "he was good at doing robot sounds."

Both got their acting genes from their parents, Toronto theater director Gerry Campbell, 49, and actress Marnie Neve, 48, who split when Christian was 5. Today, when he's not stepping over the other three guys who share his two-bedroom Los Angeles apartment, he hangs with his actress girlfriend Erin Matthews, 26. "With all this buzz," he marvels, "everyone assumes I must be a wealthy guy. But I'm just as poor as ever."