In 1982, shortly before her screen debut in “The World According to Garp” put her on the map in Hollywood, Glenn Close triumphed in a New York stage production of the play “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs,” portraying a woman who passes as a man in 19th-century Dublin.
Five Oscar nominations, three Tony Awards, three Emmys and 30 years later, the 64-year-old actress has come full circle. In the new film “Albert Nobbs,” Close not only revisits the cross-dressing character; she also served as one of its producers and as its primary screenwriter, and she even provided the lyrics for its theme song.
The movie reunites her with director Rodrigo Garcia (“Nine Lives”) and features a stellar supporting cast: Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson, Pauline Collins, Brendan Gleeson, Brenda Fricker and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Q: What was it about this particular material that so motivated you to revisit it?
A: Part of it was my fascination with a character that isn't what she seems to be, and part of it was this beautiful story that's really stood the test of time with me. I think what stayed with me most was the chemistry of doing the play in such an intimate space. Essentially, it was about telling what on the page seemed like a pretty simple story, and yet, by the end, you always felt the audience had been emotionally blindsided by it. It really registered and resonated with them. I love stories that engender that sort of a connection with people.
Q: Has anything else you’ve done come close to posing the acting challenge of this role?
A: No. This is definitely the biggest challenge I've ever faced. In a way, I'm lucky that 30 years have gone by, because that gave me 30 years of experience before tackling it again, 30 years of life that I hadn't lived when I played it on stage.
Q: How does your interpretation of the character differ now from then?
A: I don't think the effort that I put into the performance has really changed so much, but the fact she's an older woman now makes the whole story more poignant. That gives it much more weight than it had when I was younger. Everything I've learned about acting over all these years – about movement and voice and the power of thought – those elements have only gotten stronger with me and they've all gone into the creation of Albert, or the re-creation of Albert, I should say.
Q: Have you ever taken quite so active a role behind the scenes before?
A: I'd written songs before as a young girl. I've produced before, but only for television. And I've developed scripts, although I've never been the principal writer before. The initial challenge was just getting something down on paper, but that was only the beginning. Then began the five-year process of shopping the script around.
Q: Why did it take so long?
A: There were many different factors, but isn't that the main definition of indie films, that they almost don't get made? I knew it was going to be a struggle, finding people with money who could get the ball rolling, who believed in the story enough to risk investing in it. Going into someone's office, explaining to them I'd be dressed as a butler throughout the film, that was scary to a lot of folks, hard for them to imagine. None of the financing came from Hollywood. Most of it came from those who'd never invested in a film before.
Q: Does it necessarily stand to reason that the film might be a hard sell to audiences, too?
A: I don't think so. At its core, it's the story of an innocent trying to deal with a dangerous and frightening world, someone with no self-pity who creates a dream and has the audacity to hold on to that dream as a real possibility. It's that belief in oneself that we find so moving and that people seem to be really responding to. There are huge issues in society today about isolation, about fear of acceptance, about a need for connection. This film speaks directly to all of that.
Q: Talk about your makeup in the film.
A: The remarkable thing about the artistry of it was that it wasn't that complex. There were no gobs of prosthetics or special effects involved. It was more subtle, more about finesse. At a certain point, I'd be in the makeup chair and look up, and it wasn't me anymore. It was Albert.
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