Glenn Close Says There Were Inappropriate Men In Her Auditions

Glenn Close has been a part of the Hollywood industry since 1975, but as she’s gotten older she admits that she wishes they were a few things she had done differently in her younger years.

The 71-year-old was recently at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards at Skybar, and she opened up about what advice she would give her younger self about the business. “Well, you see I started in theater, I was theater for six years before I did my first movie, and movie auditions are much worse that theater auditions, it’s just different,” the actress told Closer. “And I went to one audition … I guess the question is what would I say to my younger self? It’s hard, because we’ve talked a lot in the Me Too movement how you go.”

Glenn added, “Well, I know it’s not about abusive, and you get on this mind thing to keep your mind there, to get it right, to get the audition right and if anything interferes with that, it’s not good technique but it can just, your whole… it goes out the window and you’re terrible.”

Glenn continued, and shared a very personal moment involving an audition. “So, I think my advice would be to try to relax and breathe as much as you can and don’t think that you’re gonna give a definitive performance, just throw out some ideas, you know, that idea,” the Golden Globe winner said. “But, I have been in situations where just a fellow actor putting his hand on my thigh, I didn’t have any… I never felt that I was in danger or anything but I understand that free situation because just by him putting his hand on my thigh during a reading where it had nothing to do with the scene you, kind of, think this little voice says, ‘Why’s he doing that? Should, I be reacting to it? What game is going on here that I don’t even know the rules of?'”

Glenn went on to add, “That has happened to me. So, I think the frame of mind, I hope, for our young actresses, with all that’s going on, is that they are more aware and they can … It would have been good if I said, ‘Oh, why you doing that?'”

This isn’t the first time Glenn has been open about her past audition history, as she once revealed that producers originally didn’t believe she was sexy enough for her role in Fatal Attraction. “Some of the producers were absolutely adamant I was wrong for the part because they didn’t know if I could be sexy,” she once told the Hollywood Reporter. “I loved it when I learned that. Thank god I didn’t know it then. They didn’t even want to meet me when I came out to Los Angeles to audition because they were so mortified that they’d just have to turn me down.”