Close as Albert Nobbs | Photo: IMDB/Lionsgate
Legendary actor of stage and screen Glenn Close recently weighed in on the controversy of cisgender actors playing transgender characters.
In 2011, Close starred in the film Albert Nobbs where she played a butler in 19th century Dublin. The character of Albert Nobbs is biologically female, but he identifies and has lived as a man for decades.
Close received an Oscar nomination for her performance.
‘My thinking right now is that people who are producing and directing properties like that need to go out of their way to get trans actors jobs,’ she said in a podcast interview with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
She added, however, that she also believes people should have the ‘opportunity to cast the best person’.
The podcast is below.
While she also acknowledges the frustration of under-representation, she sees acting as a ‘craft’ and therefore ‘anyone should be able to play anyone’.
Most recently, Scarlett Johansson was cast to play a transgender role in the movie Rub & Tug. She eventually stepped down following the criticism, but now the movie itself may be in jeopardy.
‘I felt sad’
Close also addressed James Gunn’s recent firing from Guardians of the Galaxy. She appeared in the first film.
‘I felt sad,’ she revealed. ‘I felt sad certainly for James and I felt sad for the whole situation. I felt sad that we’re in a society where on social media people say things that they might not say in person. I think that’s a real danger. If you’re saying something on social media that you can’t say to somebody face to face then you should think about what you’re saying on social media.
‘When I worked with him it was the first time I had been in a movie like that and he was a really good director and he had a great atmosphere on set.’
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