Celebrity Interview: Glenn Close, and Cast of The Wife, Stirs Up the OSCAR Race

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Category: Celebrity News, Interviews, Pictures

Published on Saturday, 25 August 2018 19:26

Written by Janet Walker

Glenn Close, the star of the recently released The Wife, has been nominated for an Oscar six times, more than any other actress without a win, and as time escapes no one, the meaty performances that woo Academy voters are slower in arriving.

Her newest film, The Wife, has jumpstarted early buzz to the expected roll out of Hollywood films with leading ladies captivating the voters and movie going audiences with stunning, shocking, dramatic or in rare instances comedic performances.

Directed by Bjorn Runge, The Wife, which also stars Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Annie Starke and Max Irons, opens at the pinnacle of literary achievement, a Noble Prize awarded to Joe Castleman, (Pryce) for his mastery of prose, style, text and literary brilliance that will change writers and readers for generations to come.

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Close, who plays Joan Castleman the long suffering wife, listens with rapt attention as the committee shares the higest praise upon her husband for his lifetime of work, which he generously and always thanks her for her support.

Close, along with her co-stars recently participated in the media day for the film, which has expanded into additional markets and is continuing to surprise audiences wherever it plays.

Below is an excerpt of roundtable interviews.

Janet Walker: Congratulations on the film it was wonderful. There are so many moments that I'm sure you've had everyone tell you how great it is and how great the performances are so we heard it has been in circulation for about fourteen years and how it came to all of you and how each of you become involved in the project.

Glenn Close: I think four years ago. I got it through my agent and read it pretty fast and immediately wanted to do it. Even though it was new territory. I said "yes." Put my name on it and four years later we made it.

Earlier Director Bjorn Runge and award winning screenwriter Jane Anderson had explained Close had many questions about the character, which was interrupted as a hesitancy to accept the part after she had attached her name and considerable clout to the project.

When asked what he had meant Close explained, "I wasn't hesitant about wanting to do it. I had a lot of questions about the character, I mean because once you put your name to something, instinct about a piece of writing. one of the things that intrigued me is why she never left him. For example, why she never left him .In answering that question. Because I wanted every other women to understand that. I think working together around the table before we started work, we started the kind of lay the ground work of the relationship and then the sheets, and layers grew very organically in fact."

Janet Walker: And what was the reason that she [Joan Castleman] didn't leave?

Glenn Close: I think it evolves. You [motioning to Annie Starke, Close's her real life daughter who played young Joan in the film] actually shot you leaving and coming back which is kind of a wonderful beginning. I think in the beginning they really love each other. I think they are just wildly in love. And I really understand the scene where he say "how can you love me if I don't have any talent." Then her instinct is to say, "oh but your wonderful and I love you, and please don't leave me because my life will be over. And I can fix it, do you want me to fix it."

We all can relate to that kind of thing. Little do they know and I think it is wonderful that you don't ever hear him say "Yes, fix it," that their life went in that direction.

Christian Slater: Yes, it was a slow progression. He doesn't actually say "fix it" and then it morphs into this understanding quietly, silently going on. And that scene, in particular, and it hard to talk about the movie without giving so much away, that was so moving and powerful. And if you don't know what the whole story is until you get to the end, and with Bjorn to have shot it that way with both of them on the phone on different receivers, that was remarkably symbolic, I thought. Just fantastic.

JW: There was a scene in the film, at the end with your son, David, played by Max Irons, is finding out all these revelations about you and the film is about relationships, marriage, and the film is about families, he believes it is his right to know the intimacies of your relationship and he is not, whether you share with your children the particulars of your relationship or you don't, but there is that moment when he explodes, because he is not being told what he considers the truth.

So when you started to work on that in that scene we had heard the director talk about how that was such a powerful scene, Max comes into the room, and they had the cameras on Max and on you so tells us about that scenes because that seems to come up?

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JP/GC: We lie to him. We're not ready to go there yet. We see, I think, what we've have done to him. It about the pain, it's not knowing she the writer. The most horrible scene for me. When the child is picked up and taken out and he's crying. What David is really upset about is he has missed a huge part of growing up with his mother. She knew what she had done, she had chosen her passion over her child.

See Glenn Close, who gives another Academy Award performance, and Jonathan Pryce balance the complexities of marriage, career's, life, years, passions, crises as Joan and Joe Castleman in The Wife.

Expanded The Wife is currently playing in most major cities. Check local listings. See it.