Actress Glenn Close has said the protracted process of making her latest film The Wife represents why the #MeToo movement is needed in Hollywood.
Close, 71, was speaking at the film’s UK premiere at London’s Somerset House, where she was joined on a rain-drenched red carpet by co-star Jonathan Pryce, also 71.
Close was asked if she thought the timing of the film’s release was important, given that many female filmmakers in the past year have expressed that there is a lack of opportunity and recognition for them in the industry.
Close told the Press Association: “I think it’s tremendously important. I think it’s incredible that it just happened that the film has come out now.
“Meg Wolitzer’s book was written 14 years ago. Jane Anderson wrote the screenplay 14 years ago.
“A movie called The Wife, starring a woman, with a woman trying to produce it, took 14 years to make.
“That represents why we need a #MeToo Movement. But we’re also here having done the film, having represented what I hope will lead to more of these kinds of movies.”
In The Wife, Close plays Joan Castleman, a one-time aspiring writer whose life revolves around supporting her husband of nearly 40 years Joe (Pryce) and his career ambitions.
When Joe is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Joan starts to think about the compromise and betrayals she has experienced while living in the shadow of Joe, who tells his friends his wife doesn’t write.
Close added: “In a lot of screenings I’ve heard people say this is like the kind of movie that used to be made. It’s a human story and it’s something you can intellectually get involved in.
“To be a part of that, and if that’s a movement – fabulous! There’s so many reasons why we need to inspire people and comfort each other.”
The Wife will open in cinemas on September 28.
