Glenn Close fulfills a dream to make 'Albert Nobbs'

NEARLY EVERY actor has a passion project, but Glenn Close was thinking about hers for 30 years - since she starred in a small theatrical production of "Albert Nobbs" in 1982.

The story of a woman forced by her times to live her life as a man stuck with her and she spent years and some of her own money trying to bring it to the screen.

The effort paid off. Although "Nobbs" is a sad and difficult film, Close's performance, and that of co-star Janet McTeer were both nominated for Academy Awards.

Close was nominated as Best Actress, but Best Actor also may have worked.

Close's Nobbs, a hotel waiter with dreams of opening up a tobacco shop, because that's the kind of thing "men" do, is so uptight, repressed and confused, Close said it was one of her toughest-ever acting roles.

"I played it onstage so I did have that whack at it, albeit a long time ago," she said in September at the Toronto International Film Festival. Close said, in building the character in her 60s as opposed to her 30s, she thought a lot about movement and costume.

"We had a lot of makeup trials, a lot went into the look for both Janet and me. And then it's all about very specific, detailed craft. It's really no different from tackling the Marquise de Merteuil [in "Dangerous Liaisons"] or Patty Hughes [on "Damages"]. You have to try to figure out where these characters are coming from and do them justice. Albert was particularly tricky because there's always the question of how much should show on her face because a lot of it is somebody who's totally shut down, who doesn't even look people in the eye. Servants weren't supposed to look people in the eye, but she's an invisible person in an invisible job.

"And then her whole evolution is slowly being able to look up - the first time she really looks someone in the face is after she's told Hubert her story and then she kind of looks out to her dream.

"For me her downcast eyes were crucial. If I looked somebody too much in the face it didn't feel right. And when she does actually look up, she has sort of a wild-eyed childlike quality rather than a furrowed brow."

Another difficulty was that unlike her role as Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer in the TV-movie "Serving in Silence," Albert isn't closeted.

"Albert is not a lesbian," she said. "Albert doesn't know who she is."

"And it's not like 'he's' saving up all his money to become a woman," she added. "She's saving up her money to open up a little shop as a man and to find a woman to work the counter."

Before completing "Albert Nobbs," Close said if she could ever make the film the way she wanted to, she would retire. Now, she's hedging on the retirement.

"It has, however, made me feel a great sense of happy closure," she said. "I didn't know I would feel this way. I feel fulfilled about any kind of dream I could have ever had about this film. I just want to have a party."