This is an interview with the legendary Glenn Close who plays the formidable Patty Hewes in Damages.
Glenn Close – Damages UK press tour
So we’re here to talk about Damages.
Yes. Exciting.
It’s a brilliant series.
Thank you – so where are you up to? I don’t want to give too much away.
I’ve seen the first three episodes – I’m really annoyed I’ve not seen any more.
Oh, I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
So, Damages came about, I believe, from your stint on The Shield. I read that you enjoyed that so much that you asked for something similar for you to take on. How does it differ from film work?
Well, I’ve done TV my whole career so it wasn’t the first time. Doing The Shield was actually the first time I did a whole season. I love FX, I loved the writers and the crew so it was just a great experience. And I love the pace of television, it’s very challenging, and you have great writing and you don’t have to wait around for days just to do a scene. It’s just a great experience. So I said to them after The Shield ‘if you ever want to do anything in New York’ – because I knew I couldn’t ship out to California. A year or so went by and then I got a call and they pitched me this idea. I thought it sounded great – and they handed me that incredible pilot, which is better than most of the movie scripts you get sent.
Its sharp and witty and it gets you– did you pick up on that straight away?
Oh yeah. It’s so important, even in drama, if it doesn’t have a sense a wit it gets lost.
It’s a big step to commit to another season so soon – a lot of seasons.
Yeah, it is. But then I think, you know, Angela Lansbury did it – not that I want to do it for that long. I just said I have to be in New York because that’s where my life is. And the only reason I even thought about it because it’s thirteen episodes a season, which is only about four and a half months, so you have enough time to either do nothing or do a film or even tour and do a play of some sort. I hope that if it keeps going we’ll get into a sort of a rhythm. And it’s fun to turn up and know that I just have to go to Brooklyn to work and have this great team.
Were you nervous going into a part like this?
It’s not nervous exactly. You always have to search to find the character and for the pilot I felt that, for me, the scene at the core for her was the scene at her son’s school where she’s talking to Ellen and telling her to never have children and all that. That was the key scene and I took it to a coach I’ve known for many years and it helps. I play these amazing women who are nothing like me and I can become intimidated when I’m confronted with these characters. If I was sitting across from them I’d be like what do I say now? So I find it helps to take them to someone and break through the barrier of that. Then you get the little bits of things. For that particular scene and what was key and just so Patty Hewes was that she left Ellen not knowing if what she said was true or if it was just bullshit.
What’s your opinion of Patty?
It’s very different for me to be in a series where I don’t know what the end is. And the writers, for reasons that I fully understand, keep their options open because they potentially have six seasons to write. So I don’t even know about her mother, her father so when you ask me how do I like her, it usually goes back to knowing where someone has come from that helps me answer. But knowing about Patty has made it sometimes difficult to play her because she’s tough.
And it must be easy to fall into the trap of playing her as a bitch.
Yeah, which is not interesting. There’s a lot to her – you meet her husband, her son. I think it’s wonderful that her marriage is really authentic and interesting. There are lots of elements to her life that give her more. But the bitch element is interesting too because she’s just acting like a man, she’s not necessarily a bitch.
In a lot of interviews you’ve had to make the point that you’re a nice person. Because of some of the roles you’re known for do you have to defend yourself?
I think for some reason I’ve played these women in my career. Alex Forest in Fatal Attraction and the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons. They’re huge characters, great characters, beautifully written, and I think people like that kind of dangerous woman and people like to see me in those roles. But I have to be careful that that’s not all I do. I recognise that and going into Patty Hewes was very interesting because the writers, when they first talked to me about the role, were using a very powerful male lawyer as their template. I said to them you can’t do that because as soon as you make it into a woman everything changes. It was interesting to me because I wanted to play a woman who had succeeded in a man’s profession and had gotten to the top of her game and was totally in control. And that’s rare because even in New York where I’ve met some amazing women, they’re not at the top. It’s interesting to see what power has done to this woman and how she deals with it. The story is about what power does to people.
Do you think you’re powerful yourself? Because of your success?
I guess. I don’t look at it that way. I think that if you do good work consistently that will open doors and you become credible and your professionalism is respected. As far as wielding power? Yes, I do have power. For example, in the whole Damages team I’m very aware that every single member of the team needs to feel important and that they’re doing good work. That’s why as the leader of the Damages team, as the lead actor, I go out of my way to make sure that people, even if they come on for one scene or the guy who brings you the food every day, that they always feel important.
Are people afraid of you?
Yeah, I think so, for a little bit. We set a very high bar; we have very good actors on Damages. People come into the show because they want to work with who’s there and they’re challenged by that.
How was it working with Ted, did you enjoy that?
Oh yeah. I personally didn’t have that many scenes with Ted but they were wonderful. What I loved was watching what he did throughout the season. What he did, I thought, was spectacular work. Funny and horrible. He created, with the wonderful writing, this awful narcissist. But not just the bad guy, just complicated. You watch him and you find yourself laughing because he’s so awful. But he’s no fool. He’s just so self-involved but he’s no fool.
When you’re filming something so serious is there opportunity to have a laugh on set?
All the time!
You don’t stay in character?
Oh good god no! I take my dogs to work, you know. Sometimes, you’ll never know, but one of my dogs will be lying under my desk in a scene. The guys, the writers, they work so hard that they have to be very serious but they’re all incredibly funny. In fact they helped me do this tribute to Robin Williams. I couldn’t go but they helped me. I dressed up as Jenny Fields who’s his mother in The World According To Garp. They helped me say something very rude and very funny that I haven’t said in a while and won’t repeat! And Tate Donovan, and Rose, they’re both very funny too. Rose has had several giggling fits.
You’ve said that Patty is smarter than you. Do you really think that?
Well, if you’re a lawyer and you’re that good a lawyer then you have to have the capacity to assimilate thousands of documents, you have to have a certain kind of brain. Not smarter, just different. One of the most impressive women I met before I started was top of her field, a litigator, she reads up to ten thousand documents in any case and then when she delivers her statement to the jury it’s all extemporaneous, there are no notes. And then with the summation, she said she’ll have certain key words or certain key phrases but she thinks it’s important to maintain eye contact with the jury so she doesn’t read anything. And I think that’s a mind! I have the mind of an artist, they… It’s a different kind of intelligence. And I wanted Patty to have that kind of a mind, that ability to go through all that information and find that little tiny thing.
People always talk about women reaching a certain age in this business and then finding it difficult to get major roles. Do you still look for Hollywood roles?
Well we have a great idea for a third Cruella movie but I don’t know if we’re going to do it. That’s a part I could do forever. I love playing characters that are so far out there but you have to be careful that people don’t forget that you can do other stuff. Anyone who’s been in this industry as long as I have has to really want to do something if it comes up. I mean, you’ve sacrificed so much of yourself to your career, being away from the people you love, it has to be worth the time away. I don’t want it the same way you do when you’re young and you’re hungry.
Comes back to power a little bit.
Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if they would have done Damages in New York if I hadn’t been a part of it.
So is Hollywood ageist?
Oh, you know the answer to that! More women than men for sure, but the world is ageist, especially for women.
But it hasn’t stopped you.
Oh how lovely!
What’s the difference for you then?
Well, having people come to me and say do Damages. I don’t know, there’ll be fewer and fewer as time goes on!
Something like Damages is always lapped up when it comes to DVD – is it something you think of when you’re making it? Do you get involved in the extras or anything?
I’ve done commentaries, yeah.
Do you see value in DVD s and extras?
Absolutely, yes. Our kind of show is heavily TIVO’d and it’s kind of put Hollywood in a bit of a panic because it’s taken away a source of money. But the extras add things for fans, you know.
You live in New York; do you still have to deal with protecting your privacy?
I think that people recognise me but they don’t necessarily intrude into my life, no. Only tourists really come up to me. It’s nice. And that’s why DVD is nice for someone like me as well – if you haven’t done a big blockbuster then you’re still alive in front of people.
Do you ever feel shy? Even though you do the job you do?
Yes, absolutely. All the time. What I’ve learned, I was very shy as a little girl, and a lot of the actors I know whose work I respect are very shy people, they’re not always presenting themselves. I find it very hard to go into a room and make conversation with people who know me when I don’t know them but I’ve learned.
Would you encourage your daughter to go into acting?
It’s funny, she’s grown up on various sets and I think she kind of has this idea that it’s a fallback position! Would I encourage her? Absolutely.
A lot of actors say that they wouldn’t.
Yeah, which I can’t understand. Why would you something for your whole life but not want your children to do it.
But it’s how you treat it. You’ve not lived your life in front of the camera.
Yeah, it’s important. I mean I’d much rather be in a pair of blue jeans and an old flannel shirt. It’s a big effort to get dressed up all the time and it’s better to keep things separate.
What do you think about the writers ‘strike?
Well I would be nothing without writers so hopefully there’ll be a fair solution.
Is it affecting forthcoming seasons of Damages?
Well we’re supposed to be starting soon – which unless it’s settled, won’t happen.
What do you think about Clinton? As in Hilary? Are you excited at the prospect of a female president?
Oh god, I think America needs to catch up with the rest of the world and I think Hilary is the best. She’s the most experienced and I think it would be good to have a woman. There’s a lot of repair that has to be done. Ted’s wife Mary Steenburgen has been a friend with the Clintons for 30 years and hearing her talk about them just makes you think she’d be the best. We need a big change, so much damage has been done, and she’s been loyal to issues her whole life, things like education and children, things that are so vital. I hope it happens.
Damages is released on DVD on Monday.