00:00You can do anything.
00:01Are you kidding me?
00:02Hi, I'm Lee Daniels.
00:04And I'm Glenn Close.
00:05And we are going to have a deep dive
00:07into my character, Alberta, in The Deliverance.
00:10This is Up Close with Glenn Close.
00:13You humiliated him, Ebony.
00:16Wonder where I learned that shit from, Ma.
00:19How do you expect to set an example
00:21if you just go flying off the handle like that?
00:23I think it's important to learn
00:25that you can say terrible things
00:27and still have love in your heart.
00:28And I think that's what happens in this movie a lot.
00:31It's certainly between Andra and me
00:33that we say terrible things to each other,
00:35but underneath that is this love
00:37that comes out in strange ways.
00:39There was moments that Andra felt
00:41like she needed to be softer to her mother
00:44because she was coming at her mother so hard.
00:46And I didn't want her to.
00:47I knew that the mother knew how much she loved her.
00:51I knew how I saw the film at the end of the day,
00:53how I was in the edit room already.
00:55And so Andra just felt so horrible
00:57talking to Glenn this way.
00:58She would come up and touch her.
00:59I said, please don't touch her.
01:01Please, can I kiss her?
01:02No, please don't kiss her.
01:03That's the complications of just a dysfunctional
01:06kind of love that this mother and daughter have.
01:09And I wanted to show what it was like
01:11to be a black girl with a white mom.
01:13It really was the first time I got into those clothes
01:16that I started to get a window into who this woman was
01:20that was incredibly positive
01:22because those are clothes that I wouldn't before,
01:25maybe now, I don't know, wear, you know.
01:30And you can't wear those clothes
01:32and be self-conscious about your body.
01:35And so from that, I said, oh, okay, I get it.
01:38I, you know, no matter what Lee puts me in,
01:41I am the sexiest woman on the street.
01:44I think the most outrageous ones were those shorts.
01:47Remember those shorts that come way up here
01:49and then the huge, big rips.
01:51We had to go back and re-edit that scene
01:53so that I said, there's no way I'm putting her in these shorts
01:56and we're not gonna get a close-up of those thighs.
01:58There's no f***ing way.
02:00So I had to go back and re-edit it
02:02because I was like, wait a minute,
02:03girl, I was so worried about the acting,
02:05I wasn't paying attention to the shorts.
02:07I had to go back and re-edit the whole,
02:09that whole walk down those stairs
02:10because of those shorts.
02:12Lee and I took a long time coming up
02:14with what she should sound like.
02:16Doing the best I can, what God gave me, Melvin.
02:19It came down to, I listened very much to Andrew
02:22and not just to Andrew, but my family
02:24in this movie and how they were talking
02:27and I just, I got it.
02:29I said, I'm part of this family
02:31and that's how I should talk.
02:33Girl, I'm just trying to see that you live a clean life.
02:36So it was a process that Lee led me through
02:39as was the clothes.
02:41I remember saying to you, I have no idea
02:43you're gonna be my teacher,
02:44you're gonna lead me into this.
02:46And that is what made it one of the most
02:48incredible adventures of my career.
02:51I wanted to show how black women feel
02:54about white women taking their men
02:56in a comedic way.
02:58But I also wanted to show that Alberta
03:00didn't give a fuck.
03:01Like she was ready to fight them back,
03:03just like she was ready to fight her daughter back.
03:05Like Ebony just didn't come out of the ether
03:08ready to beat people up.
03:09That she came from a bad-ass woman
03:11and that shows that Alberta has respect
03:14in this black community.
03:15I know the conversation that'll spark
03:17within the black community, we haven't,
03:19and it feels so great to be gratified,
03:21gratified to see the response
03:23and to see audiences, black men and women
03:26talk about this woman like they haven't seen her before.
03:28Cause it felt like, oh God, I thought I was going crazy
03:30for the longest time.
03:31And so now it just feels like I'm justified
03:33by creating the character.
03:35I was so excited to be in a film with these women.
03:40Their talent is monumental.
03:42I think we all learn from each other.
03:44And when I see somebody as gifted
03:46as the women in this movie,
03:48it just makes me want to be better.
03:50Of course I spent most time with Andra,
03:52but I wish I had had as equal time
03:54with Angenieux and Monique.
03:56They were phenomenal.
03:57Just the bravery and the ferocity
04:00and the love, it was a gift.
04:03It was a true gift.
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