When Glenn Close got the call that she’d been chosen to receive an honorary Oscar, the 79-year-old actor had two somewhat unconventional thoughts.
“My first reaction was I don’t need a consolation prize,” Close told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “And my second reaction was, I don’t know … do I want to end my loss record?”
Close does indeed have an Oscars record going: Over the course of her career, she’s been nominated for acting prizes
eight times and never won. It’s a distinction she has worn with grace and humor over the years, and she’s in good company: Peter O’Toole was similarly nominated eight times without a win.
The honorary Oscar, also known as the Academy Honorary Award, is indeed different from a competitive Oscar. Although the golden statuettes are the same, the award is not given for a specific film, but for a body of work and contributions to the motion picture industry. The voters, or rather selection committee, is also much smaller: The film academy’s Board of Governors as opposed to the entire Academy membership. There are no “losers.” And, since 2009, the prizes have been presented not during the Academy Awards but in a separate event in Los Angeles known as the Governors Awards.
Perhaps most importantly, however, with no broadcast television cameras, the Governors Awards have the luxury of time, for touching montages and thoughtful speeches by friends and collaborators, and the honorees themselves. There is space to reflect without the pressure of a ticking clock, or an orchestra ready to play you off.
“I’m still processing it and it means it means a lot, you know, at this point in my life,” Close said. “I’ve been a working actor for over 50 years, I got my first Oscar nomination 43 years ago. So it’s been a life, you know? And it’s overwhelming.”
The occasion has Close thinking about her own history with the Oscars, and how much things have changed over the years. Her first nomination came for her first film role, in George Roy Hill’s “The World According to Garp.” She remembers receiving the news while shooting “The Big Chill,” where her performance as Sarah Cooper, the woman hosting the gathering after the death of their friend, would earn her a second nomination.
“It was the furthest thing from my mind,” Close said. “I never even thought about the possibility of being nominated for an Oscar. I still can remember my absolute astonishment.”
The thing that she remembers most about that first ceremony, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1983, was what she wore: “The most beautiful little velvet dress,” she said, designed by her friend, costumer Ann Roth.
Some of her memories are about what other people wore, like the one time she sat behind Madonna and marveled at her “fabulous” white fur. Then there was the year she was nominated for “Fatal Attraction,” when there was a whole section of the crowd outside that had styled their hair in tight curls like her character, Alex Forrest.
“That was fabulous,” she said.
What was a little confusing, however, was when she walked out to present an award with her co-star Michael Douglas and the audience laughed. She was eight months pregnant at the time and had to fly to Los Angeles on a private plane, with her OB-GYN as chaperone, because she wasn’t allowed to fly commercial.
“At first, I thought, why are they laughing?” Close said. “And we realized it was because in the movie, I say I’m pregnant with this child and he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, denies it, and there was always a question whether she really was telling the truth or not. And there I was, hugely pregnant, walking out with Michael. So it was very funny.”
Douglas recently made headlines for saying on The Graham Norton Show that Close deserved to win that year. When asked if she was surprised that he’d said that, Close paused and said: “Publicly, yeah.”
While the phrase “it’s an honor to be nominated” has become a bit of a cliché, it’s also a kind of mantra for Close, who has never done a role thinking that it would lead to awards.
“I have the DNA of an outsider,” Close said. “So because of that, I’ve always felt the greatest honor was to actually be in the room … the winner loser thing — especially in the temperature of our country now — for me, does not apply. The fact that you are in the room with some of the most creative people on the planet is what counts.”
She hasn’t decided where she might put her statuette in her home, but she is already thinking about how she can share it with the people of Bozeman, Montana. Close has been grateful to be able to continue working as much as she does (just this year she’s appeared in the Spanish language epic and presumed Oscar nominee“La Bola Negra,” the latest season of “All's Fair” and a new Hunger Games movie ). But her ability to leave, to go home to a place away from Hollywood, is the thing that allows her to recharge between performances.
“In some ways, I want to share it with the community here,” she said. She wants to find a place where, “for a day, people can go and see what a real Oscar looks like.” And she has an idea for where: A “fantastic bakery called the Wild Crumb.” But, she added, she hasn’t talked to them about it yet.
At the Governors Awards on Sunday, Close will be accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law, and wearing a custom Armani gown, which she’s very excited about.
The honorary Oscar doesn’t negate Close’s competitive Oscars record either. O’Toole also received one, in 2003, after all. Now, she’s just feeling grateful and putting the finishing touches on her speech.
“It’s incredibly special and it’s a huge honor,” Close said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get through it because it’s very emotional for me. But I will somehow.”
