GLENN CLOSE

THE AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS OPENS UP ABOUT HER EARLY YEARS IN A RELIGIOUS FRINGE GROUP

Inside the actress’ early years in a religious cult and how the experience shaped her life.

“Many things led me to leave. I had no toolbox to leave, but I did it.”

— Glenn

She’s become a household name by playing a wide variety of roles, from Fatal Attraction’s psycho homewrecker to a long-subservient spouse in her new film, The Wife. And Glenn Close’s achievements are even more impressive considering she grew up as part of a cult in which, she says, “everybody was supposed to say the same things and act the same way.”

When Glenn was 7, her parents — pioneering surgeon William Close and former socialite Bettine Moore — forced their family to join the Moral Re-Armament (MRA), a right-wing religious group that was “devastating to a child,” says Glenn. “It meant that at a time when you’re trying to figure out who you are, you’re being told instead who you’re supposed to be.”

DANGEROUS LIAISON

Glenn found an escape when she started to study acting at Virginia’s College of William & Mary. “By the time I got out [of the MRA], I didn’t trust any of my instincts because I thought they’d all been dictated to me instead of being my own,” she says. “When I walked into the theater school, ironically it was the act of becoming someone else that helped me find my own voice.”

Her mom and dad have both passed away, and Glenn has managed to forgive them for the damage they caused her as a child. “I’ve made my career figuring out the whys of behavior, and I did the same thing with my parents,” she says. “They had their reasons for doing what they did, and I understand them.”

At 71, Glenn has endured four divorces but is now happily single — and closer than ever to her daughter, Annie Starke, 30, who plays the younger version of her character in The Wife. “I’ve never felt more alive or more eager for what’s coming next,” Glenn says. “A lot of it has to do with figuring out who you are and knowing it’s OK to be that person. I guess you could say I’m a very late bloomer.”

— Bruce Fretts

Glenn with her father, William, a renowned doctor who died in 2009 Glenn says her parents “didn’t know the devastation it would cause their children.”