Most of us don\u2019t live our\u00a0lives\u00a0in accordance with a\u00a0governing metaphor, but Glenn\u00a0Close does. The 78-year-old was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town in the north\u2011east of the US that, to the actor\u2019s enduring irritation, telegraphs \u201csmug affluence\u201d to other Americans. In fact, Close\u2019s background is more complicated than that, rooted in a childhood that was wild and free but also traumatic, and in an area of New England in which her family goes back generations. \u201cI grew up on those great stone walls of New England,\u201d says the actor, chin out, gimlet-eyed \u2013 Queen Christina at the prow of a ship. \u201cSome of them were 6ft tall and 250 years old! I have a\u00a0book called Sermons in Stone and it says at one point that more energy and hours ran into building the New England stone walls than the pyramids.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the walls are an image Close draws on for strength, they might also serve as shorthand for the journalist encountering her at interview. Close appears in a\u00a0London hotel suite today in a military-style black suit, trim, compact, and with a small white dog propped up on a chair beside her. For the span of our conversation, the actor\u2019s warmth and friendliness combine with a\u00a0reserve so practised and precise that the presence of the dog in the room feels, unfairly perhaps, like a handy way for Close to burn through a few minutes of the interview with some harmless guff about dog breeds. (The dog is called Pip, which is short for \u201cSir\u00a0Pippin of Beanfield\u201d. He is a purebred Havanese and \u201cthey\u2019re incredibly intelligent\u201d. Most dog owners in the US have the emotional support paperwork necessary to get them on a plane but, says Close, laughing, \u201cThat\u2019s really what he is!\u201d)<\/p>\n
Anyway, none of this matters \u2013 neither the reserve nor the canine distraction \u2013 because, of course, Glenn Close<\/a> is completely irresistible. How could she not be? The intensity of her most famous roles, from Alex Forrest, the \u201cbunny boiler\u201d in Fatal Attraction (1987), to her maniacal Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996), to\u00a0Joan Castleman, the seething protagonist of The Wife (2017), makes her that rare thing, a movie star who is also beloved as a character actor. Long before A-list actors made a stampede towards television, Close was churning out five seasons of Damages, the great New\u00a0York legal drama that ran from 2007, and her choice of projects remains improbably broad. After our meeting, she will fly to Berlin to film the sixth instalment of The Hunger Games, in which she will play Drusilla Sickle, then return to London to film Maud, a drama for Channel 4, all the while appearing on Disney+ in Ryan Murphy\u2019s new schlock divorce drama, All\u2019s Fair, in which she stars alongside \u2013 broad church, indeed \u2013 Kim Kardashian. Close, who has been known to lobby for a role after she has been turned down for it, has never won an Oscar, and if it\u2019s a weird glitch in Hollywood history, from certain angles the omission works in her favour. Taken alongside the impossible grandness of a Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett, Close remains the more nimble and interesting performer.<\/p>\n Portraits: David Vintiner\/ Actually, I suspect Close can be extremely grand in her way; she\u2019s just better at clothing it in a down-to-earth manner. Her newest release is Wake Up Dead Man<\/a>, the third Knives Out mystery by Rian Johnson for Netflix \u2013 first film, fantastic; second, a mess; this one, a\u00a0return to form with a starry ensemble cast that includes Andrew Scott, Josh Brolin and Kerry Washington. (Brolin plays a Trump-like preacher in a small town in upstate New York, thumping his pulpit and leading people towards mutual hatred and suspicion.) Daniel Craig\u2019s Benoit Blanc is funnier than ever (the best joke involves a\u00a0snippet of music from Cats and some organ music from Phantom of the Opera). But the standout role in the movie is Close as Martha Delacroix, a righteous woman quivering with religious fervour \u2013 or \u201ca sad character with no life outside the church\u201d, as Close puts it \u2013 with the creepy habit of materialising behind people and making them jump.<\/p>\n The role was an easy yes for Close because of Johnson\u2019s reputation. \u201cI leapt at it!\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d heard from absolutely everyone what a wonderful human being Rian Johnson is. And he really is. He\u2019s incredibly bright and funny, and wonderful. I mean I\u2019d marry him if he wasn\u2019t already married.\u201d Dry pause. \u201cAnd if he\u2019d have me, at my age.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m not a hugely social person. But I have neighbours who I really, really like\u2019<\/p>\n Poor Martha: stricken with guilt, fanatical to the core \u2013 a spoofy role, says Close, that \u201cyou have to play for real. If you try to be funny, you\u2019re not funny. And the behaviour is funny because it\u2019s written well.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0quality of the writing that often draws Close to a project, and in this case, \u201cRian said he worked on the plot for eight months before he actually started writing\u201d. Unlike the last Knives Out<\/a> film, in which Johnson skewered the tech bros with a laboriousness that made the experience of watching it exhausting, the new movie takes on demagoguery without overtly wagging the finger. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not making huge statements,\u201d says Close, \u201cand at the end, it\u2019s like, order is restored and hope is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Close keeps a small apartment in Greenwich Village in New York \u2013 \u201cwhere I started my career\u201d \u2013 but her own source of hope and stability is her newish base outside Bozeman, Montana. This is where the actor\u2019s extended family now lives \u2013 her sister and brother, who\u00a0moved there in the 1980s, followed more recently by her older sister, and finally by her daughter, Annie, with Annie\u2019s husband, Marc (the couple moved from LA and earlier this year had their first child). Close joined them\u00a0permanently in 2019, and her wonder and enthusiasm for a tight-knit family, all living in one place \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s such a gift! All the cousins will grow up together!\u201d \u2013 indicates how far it is from the way she was raised. But we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n I\u00a0don\u2019t live a life that is saying, Look at who I am, I\u2019m\u00a0a\u00a0big famous actress. I never have<\/p>\n I tell her I have been on her Instagram page<\/a> \u2013 she looks theatrically appalled: \u201cI\u2019m sorry!\u201d \u2013 and was surprised to see photos she posted from a recent anti\u2011Trump, No\u00a0Kings march in that part of the world, which skews heavily Republican and libertarian. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s very red. We have a university in Bozeman, which is a blue island in a largely red state. So it was amazing that so many people came and stayed the entire time. They\u2019d made their signs. I think everyone is just longing to be able to somehow let other people know how they feel. I\u2019ve\u00a0actually thought about going down to the courthouse with a sign.\u201d<\/p>\n Montana\u2019s reputation is deceptive in other ways, too. It is cowboy country \u2013 \u201cJust around the corner from me is where Bob Redford filmed The Horse Whisperer,\u201d says Close \u2013 but has long been popular with the ultra-wealthy in search of peace and stunning scenery. Michael Keaton has a ranch there, as does David Letterman; Ted Turner owns one of the largest ranches\u00a0in the state. Close is living much more modestly\u00a0and says she is working on finding her own community. \u201cI\u2019m not a hugely social person. But I have neighbours who I really, really like, and in my little community there\u2019s a women\u2019s club I\u2019ve\u00a0been to once and really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018She will always be relevant. To me she\u2019s a tragic figure\u2019: Close as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987). Photograph: Landmark Media\/AlamyIn New York legal drama Damages. Photograph: BBC\/SonyAs Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996). Photograph: Landmark Media\/AlamyAs Martha Delacroix in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025). Photograph: John Wilson\/ Netflix<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but burst out laughing. The image of a\u00a0Montana version of the Women\u2019s Institute featuring Glenn Close on the cake committee is \u2026 unexpected. What do they do there? \u201cPeople bring little cakes. The community will have potluck dinners. You get to meet Betty Biggs, whose family\u2019s been ranching there for five generations, and she\u2019s just a very interesting woman. I\u2019m not somebody who would run to a \u2018women\u2019s club\u2019, but I really enjoyed it, that sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n The other notable thing about Close\u2019s social media feed is that the photos she posts of herself divide neatly into two categories: red-carpet ready and just woken up. For a movie star, and an older one at that, the 78-year-old is startlingly happy to appear bare-faced, hair puffing wildly off her head like \u201cthe endless work of dreaming\u201d, as Marilynne Robinson once memorably wrote of a character.<\/p>\n \u201cNo makeup, yeah,\u201d says Close with a sly grin.<\/p>\n Is that low-key political, the decision to appear unmadeup?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think of it as political. I\u2019m lazy. And I don\u2019t think makeup necessarily makes you look better. It\u2019s all about lighting. It really is. So I put a ton of light on my face and can look \u2026 OK. But, you know, I don\u2019t want to spend that much time on my face if I don\u2019t have to.\u201d For The Hunger Games, she\u2019ll be in makeup for two and a half hours a day. \u201cSo when you\u2019re home you don\u2019t want to have to do anything. I\u2019d\u00a0much rather be myself.\u201d From an engagement point of view, it seems to be working \u2013 Close punches the air \u2013 \u201cI got up to 1 million [followers]. I don\u2019t know who they are, but thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n If Close enjoys a tightly controlled version of letting go, it adds to her reputation as someone who, despite her status, enjoys sitting outside the entertainment bubble. I can\u2019t imagine the crowd at the women\u2019s group in Bozeman, for example, is particularly wowed by the actor\u2019s Hollywood status. \u201cNo,\u201d she says. \u201cBut then I\u00a0don\u2019t live a life that is saying, \u2018Look at who I am, I\u2019m\u00a0a\u00a0big famous actress.\u2019 I never have. I have a little house in town and I sit on the front porch and say hi to people as they go by.\u201d<\/p>\n The ability to derive happiness from small\u00a0things is often most acute among those who were raised to take nothing for granted. For the first time in decades, Close is living near to her siblings, and one result of this arrangement is that they are able to pick over the carcass of their childhood endlessly. In fact, they talk about it \u201ctoo much\u201d, she says. Specifically: the abrupt change in circumstance that came about with their surgeon father\u2019s decision, when Close was seven, to join Moral Re-Armament, a rightwing religious cult\u00a0founded in 1938 by an American minister called Frank Buchman, and move the family from Connecticut to Switzerland.<\/p>\n Close won\u2019t talk publicly about the details of the cult. She will only say that she still has triggers from the experience, which she has described as \u201ca\u00a0kind of psychological abuse couched in underlying misogyny\u201d. Buchman\u2019s movement posited what he called a \u201cGod\u2011controlled Fascist dictatorship\u201d as a\u00a0countermeasure to communism, and before burning out in the late 1960s it was weirdly popular \u2013 particularly in Britain, where its most famous adherent was Daphne du Maurier. When Close talks about her background, she focuses on the foundational years until she turned seven, which she characterises as happy and free, a\u00a0case of she and her siblings running unsupervised around rural Connecticut. \u201cWhat has sustained me is the landscape of my childhood, which becomes your DNA. One of my earliest memories is being on my grandfather\u2019s farm in back country Greenwich, which was very pastoral then. And I just was a little feral child. My insides need nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The regional stereotype of people from New England is similar to that of England proper: buttoned up, unshowy. \u201cYou don\u2019t display yourself,\u201d says Close, with a smile. \u201cMy mother \u2013 we all just adored my mother, and she was the most unmaterialistic woman ever. I\u00a0never went shopping for entertainment and, now that I look back, I think it\u2019s one of the ways that a girl could possibly start defining herself, if you go and shop. But I hate shopping.\u201d If Closes\u2019s mother was repressed, it was in part because, like a lot of women of her generation, she had neither the life nor the opportunities that, looking back, her daughter would have wanted for her. \u201cOh, I\u00a0think she could\u2019ve been an artist. She was really good at sculpturing. She could probably have been a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s insane that what happens at a certain time in your childhood is, she taps her chest, right here<\/p>\n What did she do with that energy? She sighs, then bursts into rueful laughter. \u201cSublimated it to my father.\u201d Close hoots. \u201cCooked! Cooked him meals that he would then eat in three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Did her mother put some of that energy into shaping her?<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I was completely undefined for a very long time. I still am undefined.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe that\u2019s better \u2013 to be undefined rather than rigidly holding to someone else\u2019s mould. \u201cYeah, I\u00a0guess so! You pull yourself together. You take all these bits and pieces and there\u2019s \u2026 Martha.\u201d Or Cruella, or Joan Castleman. \u201cI\u2019d like to think of it as confidence. I haven\u2019t always felt that way.\u201d It\u2019s the process of piecing together the minutiae of a character that Close loves most about acting. \u201cFor example, the character I play in The Hunger Games, I started thinking about these little, tiny details that set off my imagination, and that\u2019s where I like to live. This thing I\u2019m going to do here [Maud, the Channel\u00a04 drama]: same thing; I don\u2019t have her yet. I do love that.\u201d It\u2019s the singularity of the chase that Close enjoys, but \u201cit\u2019s also collaborative. I have a\u00a0wonderful wig guy, and [finding the character] will be a combination of hair, makeup, clothes. If someone can\u2019t collaborate, they shouldn\u2019t be in this profession. You can\u2019t do it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018My daughter is all earth and I\u2019m all air and water. I\u2019m not into all that but it\u2019s interesting\u2019<\/p>\n In her early 20s, Close got away from her parents and the cult to study drama and anthropology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She was married by then, to Cabot Wade, a man she had met in a music and performance group affiliated with the cult and from whom she would separate within two\u00a0years. She has said that acting saved her, although the impression one gets is that talent of equivalent size\u00a0in any direction would have been enough to yank her out of that world. Life moved on, she became Glenn Close, but the memories and their impact remain. \u201cIt\u00a0never leaves you,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s insane that what happens at a certain time in your childhood is,\u201d she taps her chest, \u201cright here.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n So, too, the coping mechanisms developed in response. When Close talks about nature, or the soothing effect of returning in her mind to the happy first seven years of her life, it is with an unusual intensity. This is what I mean by her grandness; not in the sense of airs and graces or the affectation that runs rife in her industry, but a kind of operatic quality I\u00a0suspect comes from the habit of having to get up the juice to overcome difficult experiences.<\/p>\n After college, Close moved to New York to try to make it as an actor. \u201cI have a beautiful wooden troika,\u201d she says, \u201cwhich is [a toy] made of Russian smooth painted wood: three horses, a sledge and a man and a woman in the back under a rug you could take off and on. My\u00a0grandfather got it from my uncle, who was killed in world war two, and it came to me and was my treasure. I used to play with it in the snow. When I first moved to New York and had my apartment, I\u2019d\u00a0gotten\u00a0this\u00a0cheap shelf and I put my troika on it and it collapsed. And the troika fell on the floor and all the horses\u2019 legs were broken. And I remember I sank down to the floor and sobbed.\u201d She pauses. \u201cAll the rejection I\u2019d had, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n She stayed weeping on the floor until something occurred to her. \u201cIt was the image of the stone walls. And I remember thinking: you get up. YOU GET UP.\u201d She hisses it. \u201cGet. Up.\u201d Jesus. A real red-earth-of-Tara moment. Close got up and carried on.<\/p>\n The funny thing is, she says, in spite of this image of trauma surmounted, \u201cI\u2019m not as fierce as I seem.\u201d She has said that Annie, her daughter, is fiercer. After her first marriage, Close married twice more, to James Marlas, a businessman, and most recently to David Shaw, also a businessman, from whom she divorced in 2015. In between, she had a relationship with John Starke, the film producer and Annie\u2019s father. How is Annie fiercer, I wonder? \u201cOh, Annie would say [when Close was dating], \u2018Mom, he\u2019s an asshole.\u2019 And I\u2019d say, \u2018Yeah, but he wasn\u2019t always an asshole. I mean, why is he an asshole? What was in his childhood?\u2019 She\u2019d say, \u2018Mom! He\u2019s an asshole.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That feels like a very generational shift, from apology to no tolerance when it comes to bad behaviour. \u201cWell, my daughter is all earth and I\u2019m all air and water.\u201d She smiles. \u201cI\u2019m not into all that but it\u2019s interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Close is at her most formidable perhaps when she is pursuing a role. Several times in her career she has lobbied hard for ones she knew she wasn\u2019t in the running for. When she auditioned for Fatal Attraction, she went into the audition knowing she was nobody\u2019s favourite, and her soul \u201cshrank to the size of a walnut\u201d. To secure her role as Mamaw, JD Vance\u2019s grandmother in Hillbilly Elegy, the 2020 adaptation of Vance\u2019s memoir, she wrote the director Ron Howard a letter campaigning for the part. And in one of her earliest stage roles, the 1976 Broadway musical Rex, about Henry VIII, she messed up the audition. \u201cSo I wrote a letter and said I\u2019d like to audition again, and I ended up getting cast as Mary Tudor.\u201d<\/p>\n As Mamaw in Hillbilly Elegy (2020). Photograph: Lacey Terrell\/NetflixAs the titular character in Albert Nobbs (2011). Photograph: Roadside Attractions\/Sportsphoto\/ Allstar<\/p>\n If one didn\u2019t know better, one might suspect that this ability of Close\u2019s to appeal to directors and casting agents\u00a0to give her another chance is a highly effective audition shtick. \u201cWhen I auditioned for a\u00a0play called Albert Nobbs, which I ended up doing the movie of years later, I\u00a0started auditioning and I just sucked. And I stopped the audition and said, \u2018I\u2019m boring myself\u00a0to\u00a0tears, so I must be boring you, and I think I\u2019m\u00a0going to\u00a0go home.\u2019 And\u00a0at the end of that day, they\u00a0called my agent and said, \u2018That\u2019s the most interesting thing that happened to\u00a0us\u00a0all day.\u2019\u201d She was, she says, \u201cterrible at auditioning\u201d and after that\u00a0particular flameout hired an acting coach\u00a0recommended by Kevin Kline. \u201cAnd said to him I\u00a0really want this part; and I worked with him, went back and got the part.\u201d<\/p>\n On the subject of Hillbilly Elegy, the film and the book are now thoroughly tarnished by association with President Trump\u2019s vice-president. Doesn\u2019t the fact the film animates the origin story of JD Vance besmirch her memory of making it? \u201cNo. Not at all. Because I\u00a0spent time meeting [Mamaw\u2019s] daughter, or a niece, and looked at how she sat, talked, laughed, held her cigarette. What was in her house. I got very specific ideas. I don\u2019t regret that at all. I think a lot of times a\u00a0woman like that would be looked down on. And I also think I did her justice and I loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the amount of time Close spent researching Vance\u2019s extended family in Appalachia, does she have\u00a0any insight into why that part of the world pivoted\u00a0so decisively to Trump? \u201cI love reading history,\u00a0and the great leaders through history were very eloquent people. We have not had \u2026 I think Obama was eloquent, but I was less and less aware of a kind of eloquence that you need to bring a people together. And I\u00a0think you need to be sensitive to what\u00a0people\u00a0are dealing with. But you also have to be able to communicate with them. And I think people started to think that nobody cares.\u201d<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t the characters of Mamaw or Albert Nobbs, for that matter, that Close is most commonly identified with. Her most enduring role is almost certainly Alex\u00a0Forrest, the book editor turned stalker who lit up the nightmares of every cheating man in the late 1980s and beyond. At almost 40 years distance, many of us who saw it as teenagers still remember vividly the most gruesome jump scares. And, says Close, \u201cIt\u00a0really holds up. Kids are still watching it. I did some masterclasses in the theatre department of Indiana University, which is a wonderful campus, and before I did it I wanted the\u00a0kids\u00a0to see Fatal Attraction. They came in afterwards with their mouths open.\u201d<\/p>\n Is the Forrest character, on whom the film heaped scorn in a way that today seems starkly misogynistic, still relevant? \u201cI think it will always be relevant,\u201d she says. \u201cTo me she\u2019s a tragic figure.\u201d<\/p>\n Close with, from left, Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor and Kim Kardashian at the world premiere All\u2019s Fair last month. Photograph: Amy Sussman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Which brings us, in a roundabout way, to Kim Kardashian. All\u2019s Fair, the new Ryan Murphy drama for Disney+, features a roster of impressive women, including Naomi Watts and Sarah Paulson, and one slightly boggles at the idea of them acting alongside Kim Kardashian in her first major role. I would infer that the quality of the writing may not have been the main incentive for saying yes to this particular job \u2013 but\u00a0it does sound as if it might have been fun. So \u2026 how\u2019s Kardashian to work with?<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s lovely! And very smart. Very, very conscientious with her kids. When we were filming she\u00a0was going through working towards her law degree,\u00a0and near the end she would have flashcards. She now has her law degree, and I asked her: are you going to practise? And she said: no, I just want it in my\u00a0back pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n But I mean \u2026 she\u2019s not got any acting background at\u00a0all. \u201cNo. But she surrounded herself with really good\u00a0people.\u201d Close indicates herself and bursts out laughing. If that sounds arrogant, she says, \u201cI\u00a0swear to God, I\u2019ve seen all nine episodes and it\u2019s pretty fucking\u00a0good. It is what it is: it\u2019s juicy and outrageous at times and touching.\u201d<\/p>\n What is so striking about Close\u2019s current slate of performances is the amazing expanse of energy she is\u00a0able to summon. I tell her I\u2019m 49 and exhausted most\u00a0of the time.<\/p>\n \u201cShame on you!!\u201d she hollers. Well, yes. I don\u2019t have your wall system, I say.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have walls all through your country!\u201d I know, but Hadrian\u2019s Wall doesn\u2019t work as a\u00a0metaphor for me. Anyway, the question is: how does she do it? \u201cI\u2019m energised when I have to be. I\u2019m\u00a0very good when I\u2019m working, when I have a schedule imposed upon me. I\u2019m not necessarily that good when I\u2019m at home trying to figure out what to do for the next hour, because I always just want to read a book, and I\u00a0know I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems to me that Close has spent her life pushing through a determination to be happy. But I wonder if she thinks that ability is innate, or a function of sheer\u00a0force of will? \u201cGood question. I think when I\u2019m\u00a0with my family\u00a0I\u2019m very happy. I\u2019ve been unlucky in love, which is sad. It\u2019s not something that I\u2019ve spent a hell of a lot of time thinking about, but I\u2019m happy that my daughter has a mate for life. In fact, none of\u00a0my generation in\u00a0my\u00a0family have been successful [in their relationships], except my brother. We\u2019ve all\u00a0had\u00a0multiple marriages. But I think the next generation are much more \u2026 I think they\u2019ve found life mates, and that\u2019s fantastic.\u201d She laughs. \u201cBut I \u2026 don\u2019t mope around.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGET UP!!\u201d I exclaim, startling us both.<\/p>\n \u201cGet up,\u201d hisses Close.<\/p>\n Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is in cinemas from 28 November and on Netflix from 12 December.<\/p>\n
The Guardian<\/p>\n