by Nathaniel R
At this point in her long and celebrated career, Glenn Close surely has reason to wonder. Consider it a reverse Sally Field: 'You don't like me? You really don't like me?'
There are many familiar time-tested ways to win an Oscar and Glenn Close has tried them all. She's tried the debut performance that makes everyone's jaw drop with 'who is THAT?' wonder (World According to Garp). She's tried being the actor who becomes a kind of symbolic representation of an entire film and cast (The Big Chill). She's tried having the necessary momentum, twice actually, with three consecutive supporting nominations ending in The Natural early in her career, and then two consecutive lead nominations a few years later (ending with Dangerous Liaisons). She's tried having the kind of blockbuster zeitgeist hit that can carry you to win even when you aren't deserving though she certainly was (Fatal Attraction)...
She's tried giving the best nominated performance twice (Fatal Attraction & Dangerous Liaisons). She's tried the "comeback role" and the "personal passion project" (Albert Nobbs, her dream role, after a 23 year absence from Oscar contention while she reinvented her career elsewhere). This season she tried the "career achievement" route (The Wife) that's worked for dozens of actors and actresses whose performances were less impressive than what she delivered in The Wife.
Glenn Close has even tried the playing a real person route, inarguably Oscar's favourite actorly trick. It's worth noting -- and perhaps quite telling -- that when she did try their favourite way of winning, with Sunny von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990), they didn't even nominate her.
An ill-fated tweet from yours truly early on Oscar evening:
Food Delivery Guy:
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 24, 2019
Me: Actresses wear gold when they think they're going to win -- look at Glenn Close !!! pic.twitter.com/EOmDISdPcN
As you know, your host here at The Film Experience (c'est moi) has been rooting for her to win the gold for over a year, been blurbed in support of her, chatted with her on a red carpet, and tweeted numerous times in her defense as he watched the internet pile on at various points with thinly veiled ageist and sexist remarks, the kind no male actor ever has to deal with (everytime someone made a joke or a glib dismissal like 'no one has seen The Wife' my blood boiled since nobody ever says that about an acclaimed male performance winning accolades and never said that about several acclaimed films this year that made far less at the box office than The Wife). In short this was the most painful Oscar loss I've experienced in years (in that she obviously had a great shot at a win), if not quite the size of the hurt I felt watching Viola Davis (The Help) lose to Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), or the mammoth heart-stabbing that was Brokeback Mountain losing to Crash.
The only way off the depression ledge is to understand and perpetually remind oneself that she lost to an actually great performance, Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, in an actually great movie (The Favourite). This is easier to take than when a great actor loses to inferior work (as Close has a few times) but Close's seven losses, mean that it's not easy, just easier.
To those Glenn Close fans, hoping to gain some solace reading this, I have none but to remind you, as I remind myself, that great careers and great performances are their own rewards.
Glenn Close will never win a competitive Oscar.
Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer remain Oscarless. The 1980s are roughly the most brutal decade in terms of the superstar actresses of a particular era never winning. See also: Kathleen Turner and Debra Winger and Sigourney Weaver,
It's time to let that dream go and console ourselves with Close's multiple Tonys and Emmys. Glenn Close turns 72 next month and great roles are few and far between for actresses in their 70s. If any exist in the next decade they will also be offered to Meryl Streep instead, with the notable exception of the Sunset Blvd musical adaptation, if it's ever made but it's hard to win for musicals and people often have their knives out for that genre, and for films that can easily be unfavorably compared to all-time classics). In the history of the Oscars only five actresses older than Glenn Close is now have ever won gold: Ruth Gordon at 72 in Rosemary's Baby (1968), Josephine Hull at 74 in Harvey (1950), Katharine Hepburn at 74 in On Golden Pond (1981), Peggy Ashcroft at 77 in A Passage to India (1984, beating Glenn Close in The Natural), and Jessica Tandy at 80 in Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
Yes, Glenn Close has been Richard Burton'd and Peter O'Toole'd to history. But therein lies one final comforting note: That's hardly bad company to keep, the mutual talent and legacy being off the charts grand.
another ill-fated tweet:
Something I'd TOTALLY forgotten but is fascinating considering what came to be: Glenn Close presented Deborah Kerr with her Honorary Oscar. Close would eventually tie Kerr for "most female acting noms without a competitive win (6)"... and now we have THE WIFE, a 7th shot at gold! pic.twitter.com/CkpG3WXLxr
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 24, 2019
Perhaps Oscar can take a cue from an earlier Oscar ceremony to finally give Close her due. Close famously gave Deborah Kerr her Honorary on stage, an actress, she has now surpassed as the woman with the most nominations to have never won. They should quickly repeat that history and hand Close her own Honorary.