Calgary Herald

Why someone would pass up glory

- KRISTEN PAGE-KIRBY

Early in The Wife, celebrated author Joe Castleman gets the call telling him he’s won the Nobel Prize in literature and he begins jumping on the bed. “I won the Nobel! I won the Nobel!” he crows.

His wife Joan, played by Glenn Close, does not join in. In fact, it looks like she just wants to get to the bathroom to brush her teeth. The rest of The Wife explains why: Since the very beginning of Joe’s career, Joan has been doing the bulk of “his” writing, all the while playing the part of the dutiful wife.

“One of my favourite scenes was when we arrive in Stockholm, and I’m just holding (Joe’s) coat in the background,” Close says. “I’ve been around men who make women feel invisible, and it’s not a nice place to be in. But it’s something that she has accepted.”

Joan may not be in the background for long: Nathaniel, a journalist played by Christian Slater (TV’s Mr. Robot), strongly suspects that she is the actual writer of Joe’s books, and he wants the world to know about her — and about himself.

“I think he wants a bit of both,” Slater says. “He’s on this journalist­ic pursuit to get the truth, he thinks he’s got something, he’s found some evidence and he wants to pursue that. And also he wants to get his own prize. A lot of journalist­s, and actors, we’re looking for that thing that will satisfy us and give us attention and acclaim.”

For Joan, who is utterly circumspec­t in her answers to Nathaniel’s probing questions, “I don’t think it’s about the acclaim,” says Close, a six-time Oscar nominee who has yet to win. “Is recognitio­n different than acclaim? She

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada