ICON to ICON
Glenn Close, who’ll get the Katharine Hepburn award,talks about the influential actress and more
There’s a sense of symmetry — or is it kismet? — that Glenn Close will receive the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award, the second annual award handed out by the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. Close, you see, has long been an admirer of Hepburn’s. Close recalls how much of an impression seeing Hepburn’s famous interview with Dick Cavett made on her when she was a college student. It gave her a bit of an added impetus as she was moving toward becoming an actress.
(Speaking of symmetry and kismet: Cavett was the first winner of the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award last year.)
Close eventually met her idol when she helped in the presentation celebrating Hepburn at the 1990 Kennedy Center Honors. After the ceremony, Hepburn went backstage, and Close told her the impact she had had.
Not only that, but later Kate the Great penned a letter to Close:
“Dear Glenn Close, A great big hug for your sweet contribution. I’m glad I persuaded you when you were a mere child to join this terrible profession, this terrifying profession, and, let’s face it, this delicious way to spend your life. With affectionate thanks, Kate Hep” No surprise: Close framed that note. Close, of course, has crafted a heck of an acting legacy for herself. She has been nominated for six Oscars, for performances in “Fatal Attraction,” “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Albert Nobbs,” among them. She’s won Emmys for “Damages” and “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story.” She’s nabbed a trio of Tony Awards, too.
She’s also an advocate on mental health issues, having co-founded the nonprofit Bring Change 2 Mind to raise awareness about — and to end the stigma and discrimination surrounding — mental illness. Her sister Jessie has bipolar disorder, and Jessie’s son, Calen, has schizoaffective disorder.
In a recent phone interview with The Day, Close talked about Hepburn and a variety of topics, including her just-wrapped Broadway run in “Sunset Boulevard” — revisiting the role of Norma Desmond more than two decades after her Tony-winning original run of performances. (Close thus wasn’t eligible for a Tony nomination this year, but she did appear at the ceremony to hand out the best actress in a musical trophy, which went to Bette Midler.)
In the interview, Close was eloquent, open and had a ready, charming laugh. The only drawback: how can you cover everything in Close’s amazing career in 15 minutes? Well, you can’t. (And this was before news broke that she was going to star in an Amazon comedy pilot that’s a zombie drama and family revenge comedy. Talk about range, people!)
Here are some excerpts from what we did talk about.
On seeing Hepburn interviewed on the Cavett show:
“I knew that (acting) was what I wanted do, but it was kind of during that time when I was painting scenery my senior year at William and Mary that I saw that wonderful interview. It was kind of — my mentor, who was head of the theater department, would say, ‘Just do it!’ So that immediately went into my head that night — just do it! It really kind of propelled me to the next step that led directly to my getting my first job.” On what struck her about Hepburn: “Just her body of work, her clarity, the fact that she seemed to know who she was (she laughs) which may or may not be true because I think all of us in our profession have a big dollop of insecurity or fragility … I think I just love her whole demeanor. I loved her New England-ness, her frankness, and I’ve always felt like a waving piece of grass on a shifting mound of sand (she laughs again) so I really
admired her strength. And her artistry and her sense of humor. Everything about her — I thought she was just an exceptional woman.”
On her response to hearing she’d be given the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award, which goes to someone “who embodies the spirit, independence, and character of Hepburn”:
“It was a huge honor to be given an award in the name of a woman who I’ve admired my whole career and who’s such an icon in our profession and in the world. … Frankly, it’s her shoulders and the shoulders of many that I stand on. I’m humbled by it and thrilled by it. And will be very happy to be there.”
On taking on the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine in a 2003 TV production of “The Lion in Winter,” after Hepburn won an Oscar for playing the role in the 1968 movie version:
“I purposely didn’t watch (the film) until I think we were twothirds of the way through the shoot. Then I said, ‘Oh, come on, it’s okay (she laughs). I found it very inspirational.”
(Editor’s note: Close ended up winning a Golden Globe for her performance in “The Lion in Winter.”)
On what she’s learned about Norma Desmond that maybe she didn’t realize during her first run of “Sunset Boulevard”:
“I feel as if it’s a completely different performance. And it is a luxury to be able to go back to a role as rich and iconic as Norma Desmond. Add 23 more years of life. My daughter was 5 the first time. She’s now 29. (She laughs.) It’s been a great journey. I think the difference in my performance is she’s more human. I think she’s more emotionally accessible. We get extraordinary response from our audiences every night — we never got that degree of response in the original, so there’s something about the new Norma, you know, that is really touching people in a way that — I just think it’s probably our times as well. I think the story has great resonance still.”
On what in “Sunset Boulevard” resonates even more today:
“I think (it does in terms of) how people can be ignored and forgotten. I think people are feeling very alienated, invisible at times. Of course, there’s certainly nothing that’s changed about ageism, certainly in my profession. And I think the fact that this is a character who never gives up, she never surrenders — even when she’s falling into madness, she doesn’t surrender — there’s something incredibly moving about that.”
Bring Change 2 Mind’s efforts include initiatives at 100 high schools in northern California and at Indiana University. Close isn’t on the board anymore but considers herself a co-founder and ambassador:
“The organization … has an incredibly vital online community, which I think is very, very important for a lot of people who need to get connection again and need to be able to talk about what they’re going through. I think that’s one great strength for the Internet, is that you can reach out and hear people’s stories and benefit from them and made to be part of a community and get courage from that. Because it’s the stories that give people courage.”
Back when she was preparing to play Alex Forrest in “Fatal Attraction,” Close spoke with psychiatrists, and none of them mentioned the possibility of a mental disorder when it came to the character:
“They came up with — well, what I played was a character who had been incested at a very early age. I mean, that can be a trigger for a mental disorder. That character has been used as a textbook example of extreme borderline personality. You have to say extreme because not all borderline personality people act like that. But I know the man who is kind of the guru up at McLean (Hospital), Harvard, and he uses that. He uses Alex Forrest (as an example).”