Glenn Close is opening up about her recent decision to strip down.
“It was my idea,” Close recently told AARP’s Movies for Grownups regarding a nude scene in the upcoming film The Summer Book, a Finnish-English-American co-production also starring The Worst Person in the World standout Anders Danielsen Lie.
The eight-time Oscar nominee explained that she “thought that’s something [her character] would do when no one else is around. In Finland, they’re much more used to nakedness than we are,” adding, “I didn’t want to put my clothes back on. It felt so good.”
Glenn Close and Emily Matthews star in ‘The Summer Book’.
Courtesy Music Box Films
The official logline for The Summer Book reads, “Nine-year-old Sophia (Emily Matthews) spends the summers at her family’s seasonal home on a tranquil isle in the Gulf of Finland, but this will be the first summer without her mother. Her father (Lie) remains numbed by grief while her grandmother (Close) guides her on a giddy, winding path towards young adulthood” in a “delicate account of growing up and growing old.”
Close’s role in the film is simply referred to as “Grandmother,” and the actress spoke about the influence becoming a grandmother for the first time had on her performance. “I now have a little grandson,” she said. “He’s almost seven months old. And I’m very aware of my role as grandmother. I’m very proud of it, and I love spending time with him.”
Close is the mother of film and stage actress Annie Starke, who welcomed her first child, Rory Westaway Albu, with husband Marc Albu in February.
“It’s not a movie about people talking, talking, talking about their feelings,” Close said of The Summer Book. “It’s about the day-to-day, how life goes on and how we can love. It’s about family connection, and about strength from one generation to the next.”
The Summer Book is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by Tove Jansson, a Finland-born author whose prodigious output in her adoptive country of Sweden made her a pan-Scandinavian hero. Jansson is internationally renowned for the creation of the Moomins, a fictional race of pleasantly plump, wide-eyed creatures who populated a series of children’s books she authored between 1945 and 1993.
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Glenn Close at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Deliverance’ in 2024.
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Though Close’s proposal to go nude in The Summer Book is notable, it won’t be the actress’ first time making the bold step. Close previously bared all in films like The Big Chill and Fatal Attraction.
The actress has described her memorable part in the latter film as the unhinged Alex Forrest as playing a significant role in the development of her career.
“I think it was the first time people realized I could be sexy,” Close shared in a January interview, saying the film was challenging, but that she’s always glad to take on “roles that demand everything, ’cause they’re few and far between.”