We'll be listening to Glenn Close's inspiring SAG Awards speech on repeat
Glenn Close won the award for outstanding performance by a leading actress for her performance in "The Wife" at the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night.
During her post-acceptance speech press conference, the 71-year-old spoke about the connection between "The Wife" and the #MeToo movement.
"When we made this film the #MeToo movement didn’t even exist -- and for women like my mom, as I mentioned at the Golden Globes, feminism was not in their sensibility," she said.
"I’m wearing my grandmother’s wedding ring because I found out after she died that the one thing she wanted to be was an actress, and she never would’ve been allowed to do that, she was not allowed to do it, so I feel like I’m fulfilling her dream," she added.
In the "The Wife," based on the 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer and directed by Björn Runge, Close plays Joan Castleman, who is married to a man who puts his career aspirations and interests ahead of her own.
After her husband, Joe Castleman, who is played by Jonathan Pryce, wins a Nobel Prize for literature, Close's character, Castleman, starts to rethink her life and their relationship.
During the SAG Awards press conference, Close said her decision to be selective about roles has contributed to her success.
"We're in a very competitive industry," she noted. "I've always taken my craft very seriously. I've always felt that I had to make my choices for very personal reasons, for very subjective reasons."
She went on, "If I ever chose something because I thought it would win me an award or it would make me a lot of money -- I'd be going off track."
She also talked about the challenges actors face in films.
"Ultimately what we have as individuals is what makes us individual," she said. "To be able to approach something personally and to learn the craft of getting into someone else's skin -- I guess that's the biggest kind of rule that I've lived by -- if I think it's good I hope there's enough other people who also think it's good and that will go see it."
Another tip she offered the crowd? Always remember those who helped you along the way.
If I ever chose something because I thought it would win me an award or it would make me a lot of money -- I'd be going off track.
"No one does it alone. This is a highly collaborative art. I revel in that collaboration," she said. "You want to thank everybody. Everybody matters. Even the driver that I had in Glasgow mattered, Martin, he was fabulous."
Close discussed the significance of the film industry immediately following her win.
"One of the most powerful things that we have as human beings are two eyes looking into two eyes," she said.
"Film is the only art form that allows us the close-up," she continued. "It substitutes for real life two eyes looking into two eyes. I think we have to remember how powerful that is in a world that is consumed with different-sizes screens."
"That the power that we have is two human eyes looking into two other eyes. That will give us empathy and understanding," Close added.
The actress also gave a shout-out to viewers at home.
"I think of all of us sitting in the room and all of you watching on TV, all of you who haven't had the chances that we've had and I salute you with this!" she said.
