“I have great respect for television”- When Glenn Close made her feelings clear about mixing TV and Movies
Glenn Close is a 78-year-old actress from Connecticut, US. She made her stage debut in 1974 and her television debut the following year. Since then, the veteran actress has been a part of numerous highly acclaimed works, including Fatal Attraction (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Albert Nobbs (2011), The Wife (2018), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and the series Damages (2007 - 2012).
For her work, Glenn Close has received eight Oscar nominations, and has won three Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, and three Golden Globes. She was also named one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2019.
Close was last seen in Netflix’s Back in Action (2025), and Apple TV+’s Tehran (2020 - present). On June 16, 2025, it was confirmed that Close will be portraying the role of Drusilla Sickle in the upcoming Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which is slated for a 2026 release.
From her career, it is clear that Glenn Close has never discriminated between the theater, television, or movies in terms of acting. In an interview with The Talks, dated June 22, 2022, she said,
"I tried to mix it up my entire career because I have great respect for television, and theater as well, which is where I started."
She further continued about how television and movies were looked at differently back then,
"Television and movies back then were totally different cultures. At the time my agent said it will ruin your movie career, because I had only done one movie, The World According to Garp. I was offered a TV film called Something About Amelia. And it was about a family where the father was having incest with the daughter. I read the script and it was brilliant and I said I have to do it."
However, Close continued to choose projects that she found interesting, be it on television or in the movies, thereby becoming an icon in the industry.
Glenn Close on how she is still as passionate about acting as always
In the same interview, Close, who was 75 at the time, was asked whether her passion for acting was the same as before, to which she enthusiastically replied,
"I think my passion is exactly the same! I think I am still voraciously curious about exploring different characters. I think I have gotten a much deeper knowledge of what it is to be a craftsperson as an actor."
She briefly touched upon how she also looked forward to enjoying her time at home with her sister, who also happened to be her neighbour. However, she clarified that her passion for the right projects remained undeterred. She claimed,
"I still have enough curiosity and passion to go away from home to do something that I think will be interesting and fulfilling."
In the interview, Glenn Close opened up about how she learnt Farsi for her role in the AppleTV series Tehran, and the challenges it posed. She also said portraying conflicted women fascinated her. She believed these roles showcased the grey areas of life and helped her become more empathetic by trying to step into her characters' shoes.
She also found it quite thrilling that online platforms such as AppleTV are bringing international shows to a global platform. She stated,
"We have this incredible opportunity to connect around the world, it is fantastic. It shows we have a chance now for people to look into other cultures, to hear different languages and to hopefully understand each other better."
Glenn Close's latest works include Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix, All's Fair on Hulu, and The Summer Book (2024).
