The 71-year-old actress' latest role in 'The Wife' could be the one to finally earn her that statuette.
Glenn Close has never won an Oscar -- but her latest role could change that.
The 71-year-old actress stars alongside Jonathan Pryce in The Wife, a film that's already earning early awards buzz. Close has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actress and three more for Best Supporting Actress throughout her decades-long career, and says at this point, finally winning "would be nice."
"I would be nice after 42 years! But, you know, I'm very sanguine about it," she recently told ET's Lauren Zima at the film's junket. "If it happens, great. It's not going to change my passion for what I do. But to be recognized with your peers is a very... It's pretty great."
"It feels really wonderful, I have to say," Close added of all the attention she's received from the film. "I mean, it really is about the role, I think. I never thought that this would be that kind of a role."
As Close explained, she was attached to The Wife for four years before filming started in Glasgow, and even then, she "went in with great trepidation." The actress stars as a woman, Joan, who has sacrificed nearly everything to support her husband through all his accomplishments. After decades, she reaches her breaking point.
"I didn't want all the women in the audience to jump up and say, 'Just leave him!' It was much more complex than that, and it was kind of the exploration of who this woman really is and why she doesn't leave him that I finally, I think, found the character in," Close shared. " But it was such an internal journey, such a head trip for me. I realized I felt very private about it, so to see it with an audience was like, 'My gosh! this story is really resonating.'"
The actress' performance definitely resonated with audiences -- as well as her director. "There is one more level when it comes to good acting. I didn't know that level existed before I met Glenn," director Björn Runge told ET, as Pryce and co-star Christian Slater also praised Close's incredible acting abilities.
"Glenn [sometimes] doesn't say anything, but registers everything with her eyes or a faint smile," Pryce marveled.
"I was mesmerized and blown away by her in this performance," Slater added. "She is The Wife, she is unbelievable, and it's just one of the richest, most dynamic, magnetic performances I have ever seen."
Close admitted that part of her performance came from being able to relate to the character, a working mom. "If you have a child, as a mother, you're cut in half for the rest of your life, because you feel that you have to be there for your child and yet you have to work and you have to sometimes physically go away in order to work. It's always a terrible balance," said Close, whose daughter, Annie Starke, plays the younger version of her character in The Wife. "I know what it meant, and how the character, Joan, has a lot of guilt about her children, because you can be there and not be there."
"[Annie] grew up backstage and on movie sets. She was only seven weeks old when I went over to France to do Dangerous Liaisons, and we'd take her onto the soundstage for various things, and just when they'd say 'action,' she'd say 'waaahhh!'" she recalled.
For Starke, however, a life on film sets gave her everything she needed to succeed -- that, and a little advice from her mom. "[She taught me to] work hard, fight hard for roles that you believe in, have a very strong work ethic, first and foremost, and also make time for your family, friends, loved ones," she said. "Keep them close. Privacy and family are sacred."
The Wife is in theaters now. See more on Close in the video below.
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