Glenn Close on Women & Power

This is a really interesting interview in The Guardian (how come the Brits do such great pieces) about Glenn Close talking about issues related to women and power.  I would so expect Close to be a kick ass feminist based on the roles she’s played but I sometimes forget that these people are actors and off screen they are way different.

The article talks about how Close has played powerful roles with masculine characteristics and gets away with it unlike other women.  Come to think of it I can’t think of a single role where she played the standard “wife” role.  She may have been wives like in Something About Amelia (remember that one?) or The Big Chill but she’s never taken the back seat to anyone.  I love her as General Cammermeyer in Serving in Silence.  Also, if you are not watching her as Patty Hewes in Damages (FX) you are seriously missing out on an extraordinary performance. She’s so scary and intense.

Here are some quotes:

About Damages:

“It was their idea to explore what power does to people,” Close explains. “That’s what interested me. Because I think for a woman it’s always a very, very tricky position to know how to maintain your power, in a world that’s mostly dominated by men.”

About the lack of film roles for women:

Yet every year the number of Hollywood women competing for Emmys rather than Oscars seems to grow. Close refers half-jokingly to herself and others, including Holly Hunter and Sally Field, as “the sisterhood of TV drama divas”, but it has been suggested that their transition to television owes less to professional preference than pragmatism. “We’re seeing these actresses on television,” the TV editor of Variety said recently, “because there aren’t any decent parts in the feature world for them.” Close readily agrees there aren’t enough strong roles for older women: “That is a reality, there are nowhere near enough.” But the notion of television as a consolation prize provokes a firm shake of the head.

About how Hollywood has changed: (don’t think I completely agree with her on this one)

For an actor who has played such fearlessly dangerous women, Close seems surprisingly wary of anything that could be construed as contentious. When I ask how she has had to operate to survive in an industry dominated by men, she replies quickly: “Oh, I would say the industry has definitely changed during my career. There are lots of powerful women in Hollywood now; it’s really changed. I remember Dawn Steel [the head of production on Fatal Attraction]. She came in for a lot of censorship, by which I mean criticism, because she was very strong and very direct. It is that syndrome. Men and women like women who are a little bit more apologetic and feminine, rather than own their position and go for it. But in fact I think Hollywood might be one of those areas where things have really changed.”

On feminism:

Close has always been reluctant to describe herself as a feminist. “I’ve certainly never been the kind of person who wants to stand up on a soapbox and start shouting,” she agrees cautiously. “And I’ve never been very comfortable with so-called celebrity political activism. The first time I ever went on a march it was a pro-choice march in Washington, but it was just after my daughter had been born, so I felt slightly differently about it then. I wore my daughter’s pacifier [dummy] round my neck. But then they put me right at the front, and so I was there with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda.” She laughs, and rolls her eyes. “And they were all going” – she imitates a roar, with raised fist – “and I was going” – and she pulls a sheepishly startled, what-am-I-doing-here? face.

The G2 interview: Decca Aitkenhead meets Glenn Close (The Guardian)