Glenn Close won Best Actress - Drama at the Golden Globes for her performance in The Wife. And she gave a performance in delivering her acceptance speech that is almost as great as the performance she won for. While we have no doubt that Close was genuine, it was also fantastic television. It started with her shocked reaction - did her publicist’s keep telling her that the Globes wouldn't miss a chance to reward Lady Gaga like all the pundits did? She continued by kissing Michael “Fatal Attraction Dan” Douglas and Lady Gaga on the way to the stage. Once she got there she she gave an eloquent, emotional, yet composed and smart speech.
She didn’t forget her “category sisters"...
She thanked the writers Meg Wolitzer who wrote the book and Jane Anderson who adapted it for film. As savvy an actor as she is she thanked her director for all the closeups he gave her, she knows that’s why she won. Building the crescendo of the speech she came to the meat of it where she blended her narrative - an actor of 45 years with a great body of work who has not yet been been embraced fully by her industry - with the struggle to make the movie “14 years because it was called The Wife” - with a personal ode to her mother which mirrors the story of the character she plays. And finally she combines that personal ode with a rallying cry for all women to demand more for themselves. Take it away Glenn:
“To play a character is so internal. And I’m thinking of my mom who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life and in her 80s she said to me, “I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.” And it was so not right and I feel what I’ve learned through this whole experience is that, you know, women, we are nurturers, that’s what’s expected of us. We have our children. We have our husbands if we are lucky enough, and our partners, whoever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, “I can do that and I should be allowed to do that.”
What a speech!
She was emotional, cracking her voice as she spoke. She inspired the audience to give her a standing ovation right there and then. We all could see the love for her in the room. We saw it in the faces of Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Michelle Yeoh and others as the camera cut away. There is no denying it, they were inspired and moved. Earlier in the evening Olivia Colman gave a delightful and pithy speech that was just as endearing as Glenn’s but not as grand or poignant. This is now a two-way race for the Oscar that does not include Lady Gaga and that has Glenn Close firmly in the lead.
What did you think of Glenn's speech?
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