Glenn Close Opens Up About Feeling Like a Hollywood 'Outsider'

Glenn Close has been a Hollywood mainstay for five decades. In addition to her roles in box office smashes for heavy hitters like Disney and Marvel, the three-time Golden Globe, Emmy, and Tony-winning actress has been nominated for a whopping eight Academy Awards.

But, in a recent interview, she got candid about still feeling like an outsider in the industry.

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In a conversation with Today’s Willie Geist for the Sunday Sitdown, Close spoke openly about getting her start in acting, and why she still feels out of place despite her many accolades.

“Frankly, I’ve always felt like I’m a bit of an outsider, I still feel like I’m an outsider,” she shared. “I still feel there’s caverns of the unknown in me.”

Geist asked if that feeling motivates her now, and Close responded in the affirmative. “I think there’s still discoveries to be made, you just have to find the right team.”

Part of that feeling could stem from her childhood, posits the Dangerous Liaisons star. When Close was seven, her father uprooted her family to live in a commune, something that the 77-year-old now describes as a cult.

“I’m still working it out. From a very early age, when we were running feral in the Connecticut countryside, I always had an incredibly active imagination,” she shared. “I think I could take myself out of situations sometimes with my imagination, and not let it, maybe, get into me as deep as it might have.”

Close also spoke fondly of her first feature film role in The World According to Garp, and how her co-star, Robin Williams, made her feel at ease. “The first scene I did was a long tracking shot” with Williams, she shared.

She noted that she felt “terror” but that “he was so wonderful, I think he must have sensed it, and somehow we got through it,” the Fatal Attraction star said with a chuckle. “That was trial by fire.”

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