Glenn Close was honored at the 2019 Oscar Wilde Awards, days before she battles it out at the Oscars.
Close picked up an award for her impressive body of work at the annual prize-giving, which is held by the US-Ireland Alliance and celebrates Irish contributions to entertainment .
On Sunday (24Feb19), the 71-year-old, who has Irish ancestry, is going head-to-head with Olivia Colman, Lady Gaga, Melissa McCarthy and Yalitza Aparicio for the Best Actress Academy Award, though fellow nominee McCarthy showed their was no animosity between the pair when they posed on the green carpet together at the Oscar Wilde Awards on Thursday.
Among Close’s critically acclaimed movies is 2011 Irish drama Albert Nobbs, where the actress played the title character, as well as co-penning the script. The role won her an Oscars nod.
“I never forgot her,” Close said, reports Variety. “It basically took me 14 years from the time I got the rights to the time we gathered in Dublin to shoot it.
“(The script) had to be ‘Irishized’—there was no way I knew the Irish idiom.”
So she approached Man Booker Prize winner John Banville to board the project.
“I remember a character had to say ‘My father was a terrible drunk,’ and John came back with, ‘My pa was a great whore for the drink.’ That was beyond my capability, coming up with something like that!” she laughed.
Also honored on Thursday were Irish stars Chris O’Dowd and Aidan Gillen.
The awards bash was held at J. J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot HQ in Santa Monica, California.
