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Glenn Close is woman behind the man in ‘Albert Nobbs’

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January 22, 2012|By Janice Page

Glenn Close won an Obie Award for a stage performance as Albert Nobbs in 1982.… (ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS )

TORONTO - This was supposed to be Glenn Close’s year. After more than three decades as an actress, with some 40 feature films to her credit but zero Academy Awards, she was expected to be a heavy favorite come Oscar time. That’s because her latest film has Close playing a man - or at least a woman living as a man - and the only thing Hollywood likes to reward more than that is men playing men.

But with Oscar nominations now just days away (they will be announced Tuesday morning), Close, 64, is no sure bet to grab a best actress nod for “Albert Nobbs,’’ the genteel period drama that opens here Friday. Early reviews of the film, and her performance in it, have been mixed. (“You get inoculated against it,’’ Close says of the critical feedback.) What does seem certain is that even if she manages a nomination, she’s a longshot to overtake any of the presumed front-runners: Michelle Williams (“My Week With Marilyn’’), Viola Davis (“The Help’’), and most especially her old pal Meryl Streep (“The Iron Lady’’).

Still, it would be foolish to count out Close. Michael Douglas made a similar mistake in “Fatal Attraction’’; his marriage, and his rabbit, paid the price.

The fact is that “Albert Nobbs’’ exists as a movie only because of the sheer determination of its star, who has wanted to see it adapted for the big screen ever since she played the same part off-Broadway in “The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs.’’ She won an Obie for that performance, in 1982, the same year she made her motion picture debut in “The World According to Garp.’’ What has followed is a career punctuated by numerous accolades, including three Tonys, three Emmys, and, yes, five Oscar nominations (her last came in 1989).

After three decades in the movie business, Close could be satisfied with a body of work that includes many characters burned into our brains, from psychotic book editor Alex, in “Fatal Attraction,’’ to comatose Sunny von Bülow (“Reversal of Fortune’’) and the powder-faced Marquise de Merteuil (“Dangerous Liaisons’’). But it seems pretty clear that she’d still like an Oscar to decorate the mantel of her home in Scarborough, Maine, even if she’s too diplomatic (or is it too superstitious?) to come right out and say it.

“We made the movie,’’ she declares with equal parts pride, relief, and astonishment during an interview at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival. “To be able to do work that you’re proud of, something that’s challenging, with people that allow you to do your best work because they’re so incredible - that’s how we feed ourselves, that’s what we all look for. An Oscar, to me, would be like the cherry on the cake.’’