Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Glenn Close Talks Film "Back in Action" and 50 Years of Acting

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Willie sits down with acting icon, Glenn Close, to talk about her latest role in the film “Back in Action”, starring alongside Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. Glenn reflects on her 50-year acting career that covered Broadway, television, and movies, and opens up about her early days of acting in New York City. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. Got a great conversation for you today with a bona fide movie icon. She is Glenn Close. My gosh, if I began to list her movies, TV shows, performances on Broadway, we'd be here all day. So I won't bore you with them because you know all of them. Suffice it to say, this is a woman who came more than 50 years ago in 1970. to New York City after graduating from the College of William and Mary studying theater

and just started a career with a group of young actresses who all kind of grew up to be somebody. Merrill Streep was among her young friends. They were 20-somethings running around the city doing auditions together. By 1980, Glenn Close had been nominated for a Tony Award. She was spotted in the show called Barnum by the director of an upcoming movie called The World, According to Garp, starring Robin Williams. it's her first movie she co-stars in it and immediately is nominated for an academy award beginning an incredible run through the 1980s for her the next year 1983 the big chill then the list goes into the natural fatal attraction dangerous liaisons all of which earn her Oscar nominations

just an incredible run 101 Dalmatians I mean like I say on and on and on a career more than 50 years, eight Oscar nominations. She's won three Tony Awards, three Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards. Let's not forget about her work in television on damages. So we talk about how she's maintained this longevity, done such great work for so long. Also interesting to hear about her backstory. She grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, and then her father, who was a doctor, kind of took the family into this, I don't know, a spiritual movement that Glenn Gloss now calls a cult. that she was in for like 15 years as a child into her early 20s before she went away to college and put herself on this path to becoming an actor. Just a woman who's lived a lot of life, a woman who is very smart and wise in addition to the talent she brings to the screen and the stage. I think you'll really enjoy our conversation. She's now out with this new Netflix movie that co-stars Jamie Fox and Cameron Diaz, marking Cameron Diaz's return to movies after 10 years away to raise children,

to work on things outside of the movie. She's now back, and Glenn Close plays just an awesome role as an MI6 agent, British accent and all in this new film called Back in Action on Netflix. So I've said enough, you know Glenn Close, you love Glenn Close. So sit back, relax now, and enjoy a conversation with Glenn Close on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Glenn, it's so nice to see you. Thanks for doing this. Thank you.

Lovely to see you. I have so much to talk to you about it. Usually when I sit down to study for one of these interviews, it's easy to focus in on a couple of areas. But as we were just discussing, the scope of your career is mind-bending. So I promise I won't be to sit through. This is your life. But there's so much to talk to you about. So thank you for doing it.

Let's start in the present with this Netflix film, Back in Action. Back in Action. You've done so much. You've done Broadway, of course. Serious roles, comedy. You can do anything. What was it about this script or this pitch? that grabbed your ear.

It was a really fun character, a retired MI6, mother of Cameron Diaz. He was a tough woman, you know. And I was amused by the script. I thought it was kind of almost a throwback to those great spy romp movies. And I ended up having a great time.

My partner in the movie is, Jamie Demetriou, who's hilarious. So we developed this thing together. We were making ourselves laugh, so hopefully other people will laugh as well. So you're described sort of as a gangster grandma is one way. I heard it put. And your director said it was actually you that sort of infused his word, the character with bad assery.

Like you decided who this woman was going to be. So how did you shape this character? Well, the first time you see her, she's shooting birds, and she obviously knows how to use a gun. She drops one quickly. Yeah, she drops one really quick. She's a very good shot. And also just her no-bullshundness, you know, the way she approaches her grandchildren, but she has not been allowed to meet because Cameron Diaz's character and my character have fallen out.

And in many ways the movie is a theme through it is mother-daughter's relationships. It just was a lot of fun. And then when, of course, the bad guys invade the house, I got to do my own, you know, fighting. She has this secret thing where she has all her weapons. And, of course, it's lovely to not miss, not ever miss. Right, of course. I don't want to give away too much because your relationship with Cameron is revealed over time

and there are different elements to it. But working with Cameron in the first movie she's done in a long time, almost a decade, that must have been really special for both of you. Yeah, I mean, she's so lovely. And we had some good chats and she had her husband and her little girl were there as well. So that was always fun. And, I mean, she just has. an ease about her. It's like, you know, well, you haven't forgotten how to ride a bicycle.

You know, she, and, you know, you could understand why at one point she was, you know, at the peak of, of Hollywood. And I just had, I have huge respect for somebody who kind of can walk away, create a life, and then when ready, come back, you know. And it'll be interesting to see. see if she stays back in or if she, you know, goes back to more of a private life. But it was the atmosphere on the set was wonderful. Jamie loves to have music, you know, in between set-ups. So there was always some kind of jive going on. It was, it was a great experience. And I felt it was creative, you know, you weren't just slotted into preconceived ideas. I have to say, it was nice as a viewer when Cameron first came on the screen,

you kind of go, oh, yeah. Cameron Diaz, I love her. I'm so happy to see her, you know? Are you the kind of person who will give advice to an actor like Cameron Diaz? If I'm her and I have Glenn Close on set with me, we have some downtime, not maybe for how to play the scene, but having the longevity you've had, the career you've had, do you guys talk about that kind of stuff?

No. No. Just shooting the breeze mostly Just shooting the breeze Yeah Yeah And in some ways it was To see Jamie Fox was great too

Given all he's been through Oh I know I mean he looked great We shot that scene at the very end At the soccer game Yes We had one day in Atlanta And that was I was only on for that day

And I left And when I got to the plane He had gone And I think the next day he had a stroke. We didn't go back to finish that scene for a year. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, so that scene was filmed afterward?

Yeah. Wow. The last part of that scene. Yeah, I don't know, there's just so much about the movie, even beyond the action of it, that you're just like, you want to embrace it. You know, these are two beloved people. And then here you come, and there's another beloved person. It's just a great cast.

And I have to imagine for you, it just looked like fun, right? Sometimes you want to just have fun. on a movie? All the time I want to have fun. Yeah. I mean, even if you're doing something, you know, serious and scary, you should be ultimately having fun because if you're not, you should be doing something else because it's hard. Yeah. It's a hard profession. So hopefully you have enough chance to kind of grow yourself into it. And it's very important who you spend your time with, you know. It's just as important as what's written on the page is who you leave home for. That's the way I look at it. I remember interviewing your old friend Michael

Douglas and he said he had a sign, maybe it was literal, maybe figurative, no assholes. He said, I'm just not doing it. No, life's too short. It's so true. Yeah. You mentioned the weapons and doing some stunts. Is it true that you did the stunts in the movie here that you said, I'm doing most of these? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're not terribly. I don't jump out of windows or anything. It's a little hop onto a motorcycle. A little shooting. Hand to hand combat. Yes, I did that.

Yes, yes, you did. You do it very impressively. You're also known, correct me if I'm wrong, Glenn, for taking home with you for movie sets costumes. Yes. True? Yes. Did you bring some home from this?

Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yep, I am very proud of it. I have an incredibly extensive costume collection at Indiana University. And they're there because they have a very, very impressive of archive, two archival buildings. So they're kept at a certain temperature.

Oh, wow. You know, it's all earthquake, hurricane, everything proof. And I decided, actually, after Garp, my first movie, that the life I had, as the costumes are being created on me, was so important to me that I couldn't stand the idea of them being given to a costume house and ripped apart. and, you know, sold or rented, and they disappear. And if you talk to some of the great costume designers like Annie Roth, I have a lot of

Annie Roth's things, they mourn some of the things that they designed. Early on, their designs they could then see in a TV show they might see something that they had designed for a movie. But she designed some great power suits, and I think she kind of defined the power suit in jagged edge. And she said, I wonder where that purple suit with the yellow buttons are. And I said, I have it. Wow.

And she went, you know, so I mean, that's a work of art. It is, right. Yeah. Shouldn't be shredded. Character and costume. Yeah. And you've had some real memorable ones. Yeah.

That's really special. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Glenn Close right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Glenn Close. If I could just go back to, we talked about the scope of your career, but even before you became a professional actor, your early life to me is so fascinating. Growing up in Connecticut, then making your way to the Congo. There's some up with people mixed in there somewhere. So how does an actor emerge from that rather eccentric upbringing?

I think what kept me, I don't know, I'm still working it out, but from a very early age when we were running feral, you know, in the Connecticut countryside, I always had an incredibly active imagination. And I think I could take myself out of situations sometimes with my imagination and not let it maybe get into me as deep as it might have. I mean, I think that's what literally kept me on course of doing what I wanted to do at a very early age, which was be an actress, actor.

And was that stored away somewhere in your mind when your family goes to the Congo or when you're having all these experiences that maybe somehow, some way, I'll find my way to a stage? Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't happen really until college, is that fair to say? That's true.

I left up with people, which I don't talk about very much, but I left it. And I went to William and Mary because when we were doing a college tour it up with people, and it was during Watts, riots, Vietnam War, all that. We were the kind of other side of things. And we'd run off our bus in our little outfits, girls' bus, boys' bus. And we set up our microphones and we sing up. And I remember at William and Mary, the kids were just going. And I thought, that's where I want to go to school.

I liked the fact that they didn't swallow it. Right, right. And so when I went there, it was really the beginning of, I think of it as water on a desert. You don't know what's inside and you don't know what's going to bloom. until you're watered. And I felt like I really, I felt ignorant. So I, you know, philosophy, anthropology, all these other things, you know,

that keep you curious for the rest of your life outside of what you've chosen to do. I think that's really important. And when did it click for you that this performance aspect of your life, might be something that you want to pursue. While you were drinking in, everything college had to offer. Yeah, well, I was in my senior year, and I'd done some really cool things, kind of gotten to be known in the Williamsburg community.

My wonderful mentor, Howard Scammon, came up to me one day. I think it was my senior year, and he said, just remember, you're a very big fish in a very small pond. Which you took to mean what? Go pursue it. Don't let it go to your head.

Yep. Keep, you know, stay the course. And then when I, he was the one, then I, I mean, I guess a seminal moment was when I was backstage, painting seam move at Phi Beta Capitol Hall. And the interview with Catherine Hepburn and Dick Cavett came on this little TV set. And it was like, you know, my paintbrush was suspended for however long.

that interview went on for because I always have identified with her. She's from Connecticut. Her father was a doctor. What she had that I never had was a sense of who she was. You know, you felt like she was standing on very solid ground. And I always felt I'm kind of wavering, you know. But during the course of that, at the end, I said to myself, If you want to do that, do it.

Something Scammon used to say on the, you know, on the backstage, just do it. And so it was the next day I asked him to nominate me for two series of national interviews. And from that, I got my first job on Broadway that fall. That interview happened to be on and it lit something. It just, yeah, that was like. And she didn't do interviews. I think that was like a two-hour interview where she sort of just opened. And it was spontaneous.

Because she came to the studio just to kind of look it over. And she said, well, let's do it now. And it was like they had to kind of find people. And you just quoted her on stage at the Golden Globes perfectly summarizing what it means to do what you do. Yes, yes. She wrote me this wonderful letter after I had helped celebrate her at the Kennedy Center honor. And she said, I'm so happy, because I told her the story, so happy that I had something to do when you were a mere child to get you into this terrible profession, this terrifying profession.

And let's face it, this delicious way to spend your life. And to me, I take that to heart because it is terrible. It is terrifying, and it is also delicious. And we're lucky to do what we do. I hope that everything is changing so fast in this world. And stories are so important, too, our humanity. And I hope we keep as an industry and as actors searching for those stories that remind us of our connection and our humanity.

Do you feel like the proliferation of streaming has given more space to do that? In other words, are we hearing more of those stories that we might not have heard in the previous conventional way of getting stories out? I think so. I mean, I remember when cable came in. And all of a sudden, that was a proliferation of the craft because the writer was king. Unlike in Hollywood, where the writers, to be beaten up.

I think now, and of course there's so many places where you can tell your story, I think it's sad that there's not as many movies and theaters because I think actually theater movies should be a community experience. And you all come in as individuals, you all see a story, you experience. you experience together and you go out a community. And that's important. All how you laugh, how you cry, how you relate to each other. That's what it's all for, to bring us together in some way.

And I think when people are now seen it on their phones or at home, the stories are still powerful, but somehow, for now we've lost that kind of constant possibility at forming a community. I've heard directors say they make these big beautiful movies that take years and these grand spectacles and someone says, yeah, I watch it on my phone. They go, oh my God, that's not what that was intended to be seen on. So we're here in New York, which makes me think about you in the 1970s as a young theater actor, running around town with your friend Merrill Street, perhaps. What were those early days, scary, exciting?

What were they like? Thrilling. I remember going to an audition. I think it was for Barnum or something like that and getting the part and going out of the stage door and literally thinking that the streets were paved with gold. I remember almost you feel like you've levitated in some way because you know that you're going to have a chance.

And the thing about acting, Nobody knows what you can do unless you have the chance to do it. And so it's always hard. Where do you get that opportunity? How do you get your card, you know, your union card? But I was lucky. I got my card. And my first director was Harold Prince, but I was the understudy.

And that's a whole other thing, you know. Your hunger, you're quivering with the desire to be. up there, but you're made to watch and listen and see what the relationship is between director and actor. And it was a very, very good experience to go through. And then he, Hal, I was understudy for a beautiful English actress called Mary Yore, and she was having trouble. And we went out of town, we came back into town. at the old Helen Hayes Theater. And Hal Prince, as I walked in for a matinee, took me out on stage.

And he said, I'm making my decision during this performance as to whether to let Miss You or go. If I do, can you do the show tonight? Oh, boy. And I'd never had an understudy rehearsal. And I just said, yes. For some reason, I'd learned all the lines. I mean, I didn't know that usually you have your understudy rehearsals after the show opens. Right.

So this is another experience that fed me. So I was, she left empty hooks on her all over her dressing room. I had to put on her costume, her wig. We only had one costume each. And at half hour, there was a knock on my door, and I was handed a note. And it said it's the tradition in the English theater for one leading lady to welcome the next. I welcome you. Be strong and brave.

Mary York. Wow. Yeah. Wow. What an act of grace. Oh, my gosh. And it just, I've always carried that with me because she didn't say break a leg. She didn't say have a ball.

She said, be strong and brave, which goes back to this terrifying, this terrible, you know. How lovely, how classy. Yeah, amazing. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And you were on your way. You mentioned Barnum. You got your first Tony nomination for that one.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that where you were first spotted by... George Roy Hill. Yeah, yeah, right? Yeah. And so now that performance in Barnum gets you into the movies effectively. with the world according to Garp. Is that how it went? Yes.

Yes, and they said they were looking for a young Catherine Hepburn. So I went on, so it's all kind of, I went on stage and I was talking like this. George told me that it was the worst audition he had ever seen. Do you tell you to drop the Hepburn routine? I think they asked me to come back

and to put some makeup on. Well, you did something right. You got the part and an Oscar nomination, right? I mean. Yeah, for Garb. Yeah. Right, right. In the first movie of your career, you get an Oscar nomination.

Yeah. How did movies, because from there you go on that incredible run, starting with the big chill all the way through the natural, of course, fatal attraction, dangerous liaisons, goes on and on. As a theater actor, how did you feel at first anyway about movies? I was very nervous. And I remember going up to George Roy Hill saying, I've heard that it's very hard to go from theater to film.

And he said, yeah, that was it. Thanks a lot. Not what I was looking for. And I said, I hope you take care of me. I thought that all my scenes would be over my shoulder onto somebody else's face or my voice. It was hard for me to even conceive of what I would look like on stage. I mean, on film, and the first scene I did was a long tracking shot,

which means you have to talk and stop at different things. And it was Robin Williams at night, and terror was like here. And he was so wonderful. I think he must have sensed it. And somehow we got through it. But, yeah, that was trial by fire. When did you start to feel comfortable? Was it a different movie down the line?

where you said, okay, they might be pretty good at this. I mean, I had a moment in the big chill. It was when I was telling Joe Beth Williams' character about having an affair with Alex who had died. And I realized, I started to understand how powerful thought is on film. That is just as powerful as the spoken word because it's all, you know, in your eyes.

how powerful thought in a close-up is. That's starting my learning experience about that, which has been, you know, over the last 50 years, you know, you always are learning something. So it's almost the quiet of an expression or the face. Just let yourself have real thoughts. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Glenn Close right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Glenn Close. So was it fatal attraction, Glenn, that really changed your life in terms of the fame side of it? Because it was such an unforgettable performance to this day, obviously. It got so much attention and still does. Did you feel like that put you on some different plane after that movie? I think it was the first time people realized I could be sexy. I mean, frankly, I've always felt like I'm a bit of an outsider.

I still feel like I'm an outsider. Yes. I still feel there's caverns of the unknown in me. And I'm still waiting, you know, for the roles that demand everything. because they're few and far between. People are surprised to hear that, given the fact that you've won just about every award you can win. You're so respected in Hollywood.

So what still makes you feel that way? I've never felt that I could live in Hollywood. I think it would shred me, just because, that's me, you know, I mean, obviously it's a wonderful place to live. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure. What's your question? Does that motivate you a little bit, though?

Feeling like, oh, I'm an outsider here. I want to keep pushing and keep pushing? Yes, because I think there's still discoveries to be made. You just have to find the right team. Right. Yeah. But you keep doing it, it seems to me. You find the next thing that's different and fascinating.

You just have to trust that they will. find you somehow too because I did last summer I did the next Knives Out movies called wake up dead man as one of the most wonderful experiences of my career um and that was again i mean being with a seamlessly wonderful group of actors and doing things that i'd basically never done before and it's so it's so incredibly satisfying but it's just as satisfying for me to hang out with a group of actors. I call us the alien nation. You know, we have our own language.

We have our own way to express to each other what we do. But sometimes it's not about that at all. It's just hanging out and getting to know somebody and having a lot of laughs when you're not on set. Which goes back to the current project, which is you want to do it with a group of people you enjoy being around because that's so much of the experience, isn't it? Yeah.

Well, I mean, you have to be with people that you can leave home for. Right. Not regret it. Right. Right. I have to ask you about a role that was almost an accident, but that people online love, which is in hook. When you showed up to say hello to Robin, I think.

Yeah. And it turned into a... Yes, Spielberg said, do you want to be a pirate? I said, sure. So they gave you the beard and put you in chest hair. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people at first didn't understand that that was you.

And then there you were. No, I mean, the script girl tried to hit on you. You look good as a pirate, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. I thought with my hat on I looked a little bit like a young Charlton Heston. I love that you were just wide open to that. Sure.

Where do you need me? It was a makeup trailer. Yeah, officially fun. That's very funny. Damages. Amazing. Great show. You got so much acclaim for that. You won the awards that you won for it. That was still early in the golden age of television or whatever they call it, relatively so. And now it feels to me anyway, like that line is sort of gone between TV or streaming and movies.

Oh, definitely. Did that feel like a leap for you, though, to do a regular television series at the time? Yes, I had the big leap, the biggest leap actually was when I did a season. on the shield. Right. Because nobody, with my experience, had done something like that before. But I've always gone with the writing. And I've always gone with the fact that the English do it, why can't we? You know, Dame Judy Dench and Helen Mirren and, you know, Maggie Smith, they all did television. And at a time when we weren't, you weren't, you're, I was actually told early on that it would ruin my career if I did television.

It would ruin my movie career. And I said, well, what, if it's great writing, you know? Right. Has a bigger audience. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's why I've always been open to it. And damages, when I was handed, the pilot of damages,

it was one of the best things I had ever read. Wow. It was incredible. And I actually called up Anne Roth and said, because she's as a mind of a producer. I said, will you read this and give me advice? And she called back and said, if you don't do this, you're crazy.

Yeah. Good instincts. Yeah. It's a great show. Great show. Yeah. Great writers. You did five seasons of that.

You won a couple of Emmys. You won the Golden Globe. Yeah. The Rosie Burn. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Rosie Burn. Yeah.

So we were talking before, as you sat down, you said, it was, I think you said 51 years. 50 years last year? Yeah, 50 years last year, since you stepped on a stage somewhere around here? 1974. On stage in New York. On stage in New York.

So when you hear that number, 50 years, and you think about where you started and where you are now, is it overwhelming? No, I can't believe it. And I can't believe that I still feel as enthusiastic about my craft as I ever have. I honestly can't. Mary Beth Hurd, who is my best friend,

and I understudied her in my first job. I remember saying to her, I can't wait till I can say I've been in this for 10 years. Here we are, 50. I mean, it's been amazing. Yeah, I mean, you leave home most of the time, most of the time. I think the only movie I didn't leave home for was working with Christopher Reef when we did that.

And he lived in Bedford and I lived in Bedford, so we found an area in Bedford. And from his wheelchair, he brilliantly directed in the gloaming. He would have made a great director. Yeah. So leaving home has always been the hardest thing for me. You were lovely in the Superman documentary, by the way. It was really moving.

Yeah. Really moving. So what would you say to that young one? woman who arrived in New York with a bag in her hand, dreaming of just getting on a stage, let alone the career you've had. What would you tell her way back then? Well, I mean, she had the engine. She had the fire. I think sometimes you can, if you read reviews sometimes, you can say, you know, am I wrong about myself? do people, you know, is, am I fooling myself?

If that, when that engine of belief sometimes can be effective, when there's a, you know, by the reaction, you've got to get through that, you know, you really have to get through that, because if you can't get through that, you might as well quit. And nowadays it comes out from a hundred different directions, too. It's not just a review. Yeah. And I don't think people understand how hurtful it can be. They think, oh, nobody, people are just passionate about their work.

Well, what we do, we have to involve not only our minds, but our emotions and our trust. And, you know, it can be hard. So I don't read reviews. That's probably wise. Sometimes I read them by mistake. you stumble across them. Because you also don't want to hear anything nasty about people you work with. Right, right.

You know, you're all a team. And also the one negative thing can live somewhere in your head after a hundred positive things. Have you gone through that? Sure. I mean, on social media, people say. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I feel like, oh, I did a good job.

Then that one little comment jumps out at you. You mentioned Knives Out, which we cannot wait for. Those films are incredible. What else should we look forward to? It feels like you keep doing new. show now called Alls Fair. And I play kind of the matriarch of an all-woman divorce firm. Oh, yeah. That's fun. And it's a Ryan Murphy show. Oh, home run already. Yes. Already. And is there talk of a Sunset Boulevard movie? Is that real?

There is talk, and people always bring it up. So, and I mean, I, I think, I would like that to happen, and I guess got to go back to pounding the pavement about it. Because I think that character, I mean, with the great success, now on Broadway, that it's just a story that it's like Hamlet. I mean, it's even more understandable. Yeah, yeah. Because she's just a great character, and there's something about her that people love. And I would love to try to do her on film.

But it would be a totally different exercise. And it would be a whole new take on it. I think we're manifesting it right now. Putting it out in the universe, everyone wants this movie. People always ask me about it. I'm sure. Yeah, I guess we get my... And you're right, it's so popular and doing so well right now on Broadway.

There's probably some energy around it to get done. Andrew Lloyd-Weber is a great friend of mine, and he just amazes me. Just amazes me. Incredible. He's so full. creativity. Never stops. Never stops. Glenn, this has been a pleasure.

Thank you so much. You're walking through your career a bit with me. It was a joy. Thank you. Thank you, Willie, so much. Pleasure. My big thanks to Glenn for a great conversation. You can watch Back in Action streaming now on Netflix.

And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your very own eyes. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down Podcast.