Do you watch House Of Cards? I’ve not started the new season yet – don’t spoil! I’ve also not started Kimmy Schmidt. There’s so much goddamn TV! So much GREAT goddamn TV!

You know how people loved to watch Sue Sylvester on Glee for about 9 episodes until that sh-t got gimmicky and old? This is Robin Wright’s Claire Underwood on House Of Cards…except it never gets gimmicky and old. Claire is why you watch the show. Claire is who you daydream of being. Not even when you’re in a bad mood and pissy about that bitch who did that thing. No. You daydream of being Claire when you’re in a GREAT mood. Because there’s something really satisfying about watching a character not apologise for not being a good person. I don’t know what that says about us, about how f-cked up we are, but she’s not to blame for it.

I wrote about this when I reviewed Gone Girl and Rosamund Pike’s performance as Amy Dunne. That we have so many male characters who are allowed to be c-nts and they're celebrated almost heroically for it but that doesn’t extend to females. At least not often. Not often enough. Claire Underwood is fulfilling that. Though I often wonder whether or not people would feel differently if Claire Underwood wasn’t empirically attractive. Walter White wasn’t hot, you know? Another discussion.

The discussion right now is Robin Wright covering the new issue of Vanity Fair. And it does feel like after all this time, she’s finally hit it. She acknowledges that too, without any bitterness:

“I feel as though I’ve just graduated. I mean, I never went to college. I was pregnant at 23. You hear people say how they have ‘arrived,’ but it was just always there, waiting to come out. For me, it just took a long time. I’m 48. I’m finally a person. I think I’m finally ready.”

I love this. So many other actors would have responded with wounded pride. What are you talking about? I’ve been working steadily and I raised two children. I did this movie and that movie and I starred in this and that and just because it wasn’t a blockbuster doesn’t mean I wasn’t there.

No. She readily accepts that this is her time. And she doesn’t deny that it feels f-cking amazing.

As for Sean Penn? You’ll recall, three years ago, he said he used the word “fraud” when (presumably) referring to their marriage. Recently, in an interview with ESQUIRE, he wouldn’t even refer to her by name. Robin’s bitch is a lot more subtle, more artful. Still bitch…but the kind that cuts you when you’re sleeping and then smokes slowly, elegantly, out the window while you’re bleeding out. Basically Claire Underwood:

“I’ve never been happier in my life than I am today. Perhaps it’s not ladylike [to say], but I’ve never laughed more, read more, or come more than with Ben. He inspires me to be the best of myself. There’s so much to learn. It’s endless. How great! It took me a long time to grow up. Love is possible as life is possible. I’m not in the business of talking about what ‘isn’t’. My eyes are set forward and I’ve never been happier. I have too much respect for Sean and our two extraordinary children to sell our past joys and woes for public consumption and fodder. I believe we were together not only to have our beautiful children but to learn how to love … for the next time around, the right way. And then, what I’m looking for in people now is kindness.”

Now, right away, you’re wondering how Sean Penn wasn’t kind. And then you’re picturing him punching people. Or tying Madonna to a chair and, well, you know what happened there.

PS. I LOVE the photos here. How her bone structure is doing all the work instead of makeup.

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Click here for more at Vanity Fair.