W
O
R
DS: (^) J
EN
N
Y
CO
O
N
EY
(^) C
AR
RI
LL
O
. (^) P
H
O
TO
S:
(^) G
R
A
EM
E
H
U
N
TE
R
PI
CT
U
R
ES
. (^) ^
SE
E
PA
G
E
(^18)
9
her of her 15 years in Moral Re-Armament
(since renamed Initiatives of Change), an
international spiritual movement founded
in London in 1938 by the evangelical
Reverend Frank Buchman.
“It was like a cult-like group,” she recalls,
“where everybody was supposed to say
the same things and act in the same way,
and my parents were in it from when I was
seven to when I was 22. It was devastating
to a child because it meant that, at a time
when you’re trying to figure out who you
are, you’re being told instead who you’re
supposed to be.
“[These days] I’ve never felt more alive
or more eager for what’s coming next.
I think a lot of it has to do with figuring out
who you are and knowing that it’s okay to
be that person,” she continues. “I guess
I’m a very late bloomer!”
MOVIE FEATURE
just not a time for women, that it’s very
hard to be published, that it won’t happen
to her,” Close explains. “Partly because
of that, she slips into the relationship she
has with Joe. It’s a huge compromise on
her part, but it’s very much a thing that
I think women do often, which is to say,
‘No, no, don’t worry about anything –
you’re great, I can make you feel better.’”
Accepting her Golden Globe Award,
Close elaborated on the role: “I’m thinking
of my own mum, who really sublimated
herself to my father her whole life and, in
her 80s, she said to me, ‘I feel like I haven’t
accomplished anything.’ And it was so not
right. I feel like what I’ve learned from this
whole experience is that... women, we’re
nurturers, and that’s what’s expected of us...
but we have to find personal fulfilment... We
have to say, ‘I can do that, and I should
be allowed to do that.’”
Also appearing in The Wife is Close’s
31-year-old daughter, Annie Starke,
portraying Joan in flashbacks.
“I thought she had a talent for acting in
school plays, but she avoided it because
she felt the scrutiny of being the child of
someone famous,” says Close. “Finally, after
getting a degree in art history, she came to
me and said, ‘All this time, the only thing
I’ve ever really wanted to do was act!’”
Married and divorced three times, the
star of The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction and
Albert Nobbs insists she’s no longer
interested in being ‘The Wife’.
“I’ve been in and out of relationships
and it’s been a rough road,” she confides.
“I kind of feel like I’m Patty Hewes [the
tough lawyer she played in her hit TV
series Damages]. I don’t know anyone
who would take me,” she chuckles.
Now spending most of her free time
alone on her 400-hectare Wyoming ranch,
Close says she has no regrets.
“I do have respect for marriage even
though I’ve never succeeded at it,” she
muses. “[But] if you’re an artist, sometimes
you’re so consumed by your art that you
don’t have any emotional energy left to
give anyone else. So, in a way, it’s kind
of better if you’re alone.”
Close is no wallflower, but she admits
that her character in The Wife did remind
Joe (Jonathan Pryce)
is the Yin to Joan’s
(Glenn Close) Yang
Christian Slater plays
a biographer intent on
exposing the truth about Joe
Close’s daughter
Annie Starke plays
a younger version of Joan
Foxtel MAY 37