Glenn Close bares it all in her new movie.
In a new interview with AARP’s Movies for Grownups, the 78-year-old actress got candid about a nude scene in The Summer Book (in theaters Friday). Asked if she was “nervous to go au naturel on camera,” as the publication put it, Close said she embraced it.
“It was my idea,” said the Oscar nominee. “I thought that’s something [my character] would do when no one else is around. In Finland, they’re much more used to nakedness than we are.”
The Summer Book, based on the novel of the same name by Tove Jansson, is the story of a grieving grandmother and granddaughter set on a small island in the Gulf of Finland. Close leads the film as a character known only as Grandmother to Emily Matthews’ young Sophia.
One scene involves Grandmother taking a fully nude walk in the forest. “I didn’t want to put my clothes back on,” Close told AARP with a smile. “It felt so good.”
The “very unsentimental” movie, as Close called it, marks the first time she’s played a grandmother since becoming one herself; the Back in Action star’s daughter Annie Starke announced the birth of her first child, son Rory, with her husband Marc Albu in February.
“I’m very aware of my role as grandmother,” said Close. “I’m very proud of it, and I love spending time with him.”
Close, Stark and their growing family live on a ranch in Montana. “One of the reasons we live here is because we can raise [Annie’s son] surrounded by nature,” she said.
“He’ll know that property like the back of his hand, and he’ll know the changing of the seasons. He’ll know how things grow. He’ll get respect for wildlife, he’ll build his secret places and it will sustain him through life, as my childhood did, my early childhood running around the Connecticut countryside.” That’s why The Summer Book — a movie “about the day-to-day, how life goes on,” Close said — resonated with her.
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