Claire Underwood (née Hale) is a fictional character in House of Cards, played by Robin Wright. She is the wife of the show's protagonist Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and the main protagonist in the final season. She is a lobbyist and runs an environmental nonprofit organization, but in later seasons ascends to the positions of Second Lady of the United States, First Lady of the United States, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Vice President of the United States, and finally the 47th President of the United States. Claire made her first appearance in the series' pilot episode, "Chapter 1". The character is based on Elizabeth Urquhart, a character from the eponymous British miniseries from which the current series is derived. Unlike the original character, however, Claire has her own storylines.
The role has been critically acclaimed. Wright won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for this role at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, becoming the first actress to win a Golden Globe Award for a streaming television online-only role in a series. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for this role at the 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th, 69th and 71st Primetime Emmy Awards.
In November 2017, Netflix fired Spacey from the series after a number of people accused him of sexual misconduct. The Frank Underwood character was written out of the show as having died, and Claire became the main character of the show's sixth and final season.
Character overview Claire Hale Underwood is originally from the exclusive Highland Park enclave of Dallas, Texas. Her late father was a major Texas Republican. While studying Environmental Health and Chemistry at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, she met Francis J. "Frank" Underwood, a Harvard Law student from South Carolina. She subsequently achieved a masters in public health from Harvard University. She is from a wealthy family, and the show characterizes her as a "Dallas Debutante" and "Lily White". She recounts her father's taking her to Dealey Plaza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and that it made her feel "so sad, so angry". She has a difficult relationship with her mother, Elizabeth Hale (Ellen Burstyn), who despises Frank and is disappointed in Claire for marrying him.
Brian Stelter of The New York Times described her as Frank Underwood's conniving wife and described the Underwoods as "the scheming husband and wife at the center of 'House of Cards'". She is a woman "who will stop at nothing to conquer everything". Hank Stuever of The Washington Post describes her as an "ice-queen wife". The Independents Sarah Hughes echoes this description, saying Claire is so dedicated to the couple's schemes that it is clear she will execute them herself if Frank wavers. Following season 4, Robin Wright stated that she felt Claire Underwood was the equal of Frank Underwood and demanded equal pay for her performance. Netflix acquiesced.
Relationship with Frank While Frank is Machiavellian, Claire presents a woman urging on her husband's assertion of power in the image of Lady Macbeth. She encourages his vices while noting her disapproval of his weaknesses, saying: "My husband doesn't apologize ... even to me." This gives a credibility to their symbiosis.
Willimon notes that "What's extraordinary about Frank and Claire is there is deep love and mutual respect, but the way they achieve this is by operating on a completely different set of rules than the rest of us typically do."
Nancy deWolf Smith of The Wall Street Journal describes Claire as "a short-haired blonde who manages to be masculine and demasculinizing at the same time." Smith describes their relationship as pivotal to the show: "Benign though they may seem—and their harmless air is what makes the Underwoods so effective as political plotters—this is a power couple with the same malignant chemistry as pairs of serial killers, where each needs the other in order to become lethal".
Upon viewing a four-episode preview of season 2, Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter says the series "sells husband and wife power-at-all-costs couple Frank (Kevin Spacey) and Claire (Robin Wright) Underwood as a little too oily and reptilian for anyone's good." Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara makes the case that House of Cards is a love story on many levels but most importantly between Frank and Claire.
In season 3, when the Underwoods are President and First Lady of the United States, Claire's marriage to Frank begins to falter. She tires of being in a subordinate role to him, wanting to be "significant" in her own right, and decides that he is "not enough" for her. She leaves him in the season finale but comes back in the fourth season, treating their marriage as a purely political arrangement to further her own career. When he is shot during a campaign event, Claire privately admits that she feels nothing for him. Throughout the season, she works behind the scenes to undermine Frank's election campaign, before finally joining forces with him in order to become his vice president. She also has an affair with her speechwriter Tom Yates (Paul Sparks), with Frank's approval.
Prior to Spacey's departure from the series, season 6 was going to center on a divorce battle between Frank and Claire, with the two attempting to destroy each other; after Spacey was fired, however, the season's story arc was drastically rewritten. The new season plot had Frank dying offscreen, and Claire—now the president—publicly distancing herself from him, and privately calling him her "biggest regret". Later in the season, she reveals that she is pregnant with his child.
Fictional character biography Season 1 Claire is the CEO of an environmental group while serving as her husband's primary accomplice. After President Garrett Walker (Michel Gill) goes back on his promise to make Frank Secretary of State, Frank enlists Claire to help him get revenge and propel them both to positions of power. She and Frank scheme nightly over a cigarette, and together they maneuver their way into Walker's inner circle. Frank says of Claire: "I love that woman, I love her more than sharks love blood."
Claire is aware of Frank's sexual relationship with reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) and approves of it as long as it achieves their ends. She herself has an affair with an old boyfriend, Adam Galloway (Ben Daniels).
By the end of the season, Walker appoints Frank the Vice President of the United States, making Claire the Second Lady of the United States.
Season 2 Claire's main storyline in season 2 is her advocacy, as Second Lady, for a sexual assault prevention bill. During her campaign for the bill, a secret from her college days emerges: during a nationally televised interview, she admits that she was raped in college and that her rapist, Dalton McGinnis (Peter Bradbury), is now a high-ranking general. (She had earlier had an uncomfortable encounter with McGinnis at a White House dinner, during which she had told Frank what the general had done to her.) She also admits to having aborted a pregnancy that she claims was the result of the rape; it is later revealed that she in fact aborted Frank's child, with his consent. She then converts the focus on that issue into political support that becomes critical to the Underwoods' ascension to the Oval Office.
Claire becomes increasingly ruthless as the season progresses. When Galloway leaks an intimate photo of Claire to appease his jealous fiancée, Claire intimidates him into publicly stating that he fabricated the picture, ruining his reputation. When Gillian Cole (Sandrine Holt), a pregnant former employee, returns to demand health care as part of her severance, Claire says, "I am willing to let your child wither and die inside you, if that's what's required, ... Am I really the sort of enemy you want to make?" Claire also manipulates First Lady Patricia Walker (Joanna Going) into believing that her husband is having an affair in order to distract President Walker from Frank's machinations.
She shows remorse for her actions only once. When another of McGinnis' victims, Megan Hennessy (Libby Woodbridge), comes forward, Claire uses her as the poster girl for the sexual assault bill, leaving the fragile young woman open to public scrutiny and reprisals from the bill's opponents. Before she can testify about her ordeal before Congress, however, Megan suffers a breakdown and attempts suicide. Upon realizing what she has caused Megan to go through, Claire bursts into tears.
In the season finale, she urges Frank to humble himself before President Walker, with whom he has fallen out of favor, in order to complete the plan: "Cut out your heart and put it in his fucking hands." The gambit works: Walker keeps Frank as his Vice President, allowing Frank to succeed him when he resigns. Frank is now President of the United States, with Claire as the First Lady.
According to Drew Grant of The New York Observer, Claire's season-long storyline was similar to the real life efforts of United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's to legislate an end to military sexual assault. Based upon the 4-episode preview, Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times says that in season 2 Claire "is still ruthlessly pursuing her own agenda as well as her husband's. She remains an enigma even as she reveals more and more disturbing secrets from her past." Claire remains composed and stylish with or without her husband and manipulates the press with aplomb.
Season 3 In Season 3, Claire feels the need to be something more "significant" than the First Lady, and asks Frank to nominate her to a United Nations post. He nominates her, but the Senate rejects her after a rocky hearing. Frank gives her the job anyway in a recess appointment, but her tenure is brief; she ruins a treaty between the U.S. and Russia by publicly confronting Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen) about his anti-gay policies and is forced to resign when Petrov uses her as a bargaining chip during a diplomatic crisis.
During Frank's election campaign, Claire begins to question whether she still loves him. In the season finale, she and Frank get into an ugly fight in which she says he is not enough for her; Frank replies that without him, she is nothing. Season three ends with Claire leaving Frank as he prepares to go to the New Hampshire primary.
Season 4 After leaving Frank, Claire goes back to Texas, where she has a tense reunion with her mother, who is dying of lymphoma. She sets her sights on running for a House of Representatives seat in Texas, with help from political consultant LeAnn Harvey (Neve Campbell). Frank persuades her to resume public appearances with him by promising to support her run. However, he sandbags her prospective candidacy by endorsing a political ally's daughter, in order to keep Claire focused on his campaign. Claire retaliates on the day of the South Carolina primary by covertly leaking a photo of Frank's father with a Klansman, imperiling Frank's candidacy. Frank figures out that she was behind the leak and confronts her. Claire calmly admits what she did and proposes that she join him in the ticket as his vice president. Frank rejects the idea.