And how can an actor with astonishing talents, a rich résumé of memorable roles, and a choice of top-rung actors and crew help bring Albert to the screen? Very nicely, thank you, although the task took Close nearly 30 years. In 1982, she played Albert in a theatricalization by Simone Benmussa. The character haunted Close, who continued developing ideas for the film version of the story. For decades, too, Albert disguised herself as a man, surviving by becoming a butler at a fine hotel in Dublin. Like Albert, Close gives the performance of a lifetime. Praise her work, however, and she immediately responds, "How about all the other actors? Aren't they wonderful?" Wonderful indeed, they include Pauline Collins, Brenda Fricker, Mia Wasikowska, Brendan Gleeson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and, in a spectacular turn, Janet McTeer.
Close crafted the role with full attention to details external and internal. First and foremost, she says, she definitely created Albert as a woman, with a woman's feelings. "I thought of her literally as behind the mask, looking out," she says. "The real tricky part of the character was how much to show on your face at any given time, because she had lived behind that mask for so long." Close asked for reshoots because she felt her character had been looking people in the eye too much: "And that makes her look comfortable. We reshot it with Albert more downcast, looking down. That's who she was. And it was better."
But the characterization is not humorless. Close created Albert based on classic clowns, whom one can see a touch of in her walk. "I always have felt that one of the things that most attracted me to Albert and kept me loving her all these years is that she's comic and tragic at the same time," Close says. "So, there's a clown side to her." The actor grew up watching Emmett Kelly, and she studied Charlie Chaplin's films to help flesh out Albert. "And the fact that she's 14 when she became a waiter, so the clothes would be too big for her—certainly the pants would be too long and the shoes would be too big," Close says. "So she turns her feet out like Chaplin and has shoes that are just short of being clown size."
The actor looks shockingly like a man in the role, and yet, she insists, "I had very little makeup except what was needed to meld the tip of my nose and the size of my ears. It wasn't about a woman pasting hair on her face to be a man but what happens to a woman's face when she lives that life for so long."
Noticeably, Close deepens her voice as Albert. But she had other externals to concentrate on, too. "I was thinking of turning my feet out, and what was on my face, and the London accent, so the voice was the fourth layer," she says. "And I had the dialect coach tell me if it started going up, because sometimes I had to be reminded." But she recalls her mentor, Howard Scammon—her professor at the College of William & Mary—teaching her that there's range in one's speaking voice just as in one's singing voice. "But, yes," she says, "you work on it till you find a place that's comfortable, or else you strain yourself."
Close worked with the film's director, Rodrigo GarcÃa, to edit the film. GarcÃa put together the first cut in L.A., then moved the editing office to New York to be with Close while she worked on "Damages." They had shot the film in 32 days. Most of the scenes that take place in the hotel were shot in Cabinteeley House, built in the 18th century in a Dublin suburb. The production set up a greenroom for all the actors, Close says. "And we had tea, and we had these heaters that made everybody red when you sat in front of them; it was freezing cold. And so it was very much like a theater company, actually."
In fact, to save time, the entire opening scene was fully choreographed. "From the time the first people walk in to when the aristocrats come in, everybody had their pathway, and we rehearsed it like a play," she says. "So when it has to be broken up in order to shoot bits, everybody knew where they were, in context for the moment. And you could not do that without theater actors. Everybody was totally at home. It was fantastic." So, to say the least, is Close.
Outtakes
Earned Oscar nominations for her work in "The World According to Garp," "The Big Chill," "The Natural," "Fatal Attraction," and "Dangerous Liaisons"
While researching in 2002, she found an article in National Geographic about the "sworn virgins" in Albania. Says Close, "If their family doesn't have any male heir, they live the life of a man on behalf of their family. They have a picture of this woman; I've carried her with me all 10 years."
Discarded a scene shot in a bar, because she was never convinced Albert would set foot in a bar
Repeatedly offers heartfelt praise for the film's designers, including production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein, prosthetic designer Matthew Mungle, wig maker Martial Corneville, and costumer Pierre-Yves Gayraud