“Albert Nobbs” gives actor Glenn Close — who also produced, co-wrote the screenplay and penned the closing song lyrics — a plum part as a woman who poses as a male butler in 19th-century Ireland.
The story, which addresses gender roles of the Victorian era, is a pet project for Close. She won an Obie in 1982 for her performance as Nobbs in a stage version of George Moore’s short story. Close and Janet McTeer received Oscar nominations this week for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively.
In a recent phone interview, Close paused to give her dog Bill, a mutt, a treat so she could talk about “Albert Nobbs.”
Although the character was familiar to the actor, becoming the reserved Albert Nobbs provided a welcome change of pace after playing several over-the-top characters, ranging from Patty Hewes on TV’s “Damages” to Cruella de Vil in “101 Dalmatians,” and even Alex Forrest in “Fatal Attraction.”
“Yeah, it was wonderful, really wonderful, to play Albert after doing Cruella and Patty,” Close recalled with a laugh. “I’ve had a run of really strong and really ‘out there’ women, so to go to someone very internal, it was a great challenge — very fulfilling.”
And the actor insisted that despite outward appearances, Albert Nobbs is a “she.” “I never think of Nobbs as a ‘he,’” Close said adamantly. “She puts on a disguise and looks out at the world with downcast eyes. Servants were not supposed to look people in the eye. They were supposed to face the wall when people passed by.”
Albert’s reaction shots, as well as “her” look and voice, are the key to what makes Close’s performance so noteworthy. In one memorable scene, she appears wide-eyed when a stranger, Hubert Page (McTeer), with whom Albert shares a bed one night, reveals her breasts. Hubert illustrates that she is practicing the same gender deception as Nobbs, and the two women soon become friends.
Other private moments feature Albert silently observing guests in the hotel hallways or during a costume party. At the mention of this latter scene, Close interjected to recount one of her favorite moments in the film, when the hotel doctor (played by Brendan Gleeson) says to her, “We’re disguised as ourselves.”
“Little does he know!” Close says, with a laugh.
She revealed that her inspiration for the character’s comportment and movement were based on Charlie Chaplin.
“He’s of the human comedy, and there should be aspects of comedy and sadness [to Nobbs]. His shoes are always too big and heavy, and his pants too long. That aspect is unconsciously comic. I was always very influenced by Laurel and Hardy and Emmett Kelly, that comic clown with Ringling Bros. Circus, when I was growing up.”
As for Nobbs’ deep male voice, Close learned to develop her lower register by working with a voice and dialect coach. She reflected back on something her William and Mary theater professor, Howard Scammon, taught her: “You can have as great a speaking range as you do a singing range.” She added, “But that’s tricky,” and indicated that she received notes from her coach about dialect and tone to make sure she was consistently at the right level.
Tone is an important element in “Albert Nobbs.” The film, directed by Rodrigo Garcia (who has worked with Close twice before, on “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” and “Nine Lives”), is shot in a lovely, burnished style. There are brief flights of fantasy, along with serious episodes, as when an epidemic takes over the hotel. However, most of the drama stems from Nobbs hiding both her female identity and a cache of money she keeps concealed in her floorboards. A storyline has Joe (Aaron Johnson), an unemployed young man finagling a job at the hotel. He soon prompts his girlfriend Helen (Mia Wasikowska), a maid, to “walk out” with Albert to secure some of Albert’s money. Albert, however, is oblivious to the deception. She sees Helen as a potential partner for the tobacco shop she hopes to open.
“Albert starts this dream of finding someone who can help her have a business with insufficient information,” Close explained about the subplot. “She’s lived in hotels since she was 14 and doesn’t know anything. She models herself as the perfect Victorian gentleman, and tries to present herself as that, with her formal hat and umbrella. She knows nothing of human contact and intimacy. Albert is naïve. She’s not looking out with a furrowed brow, but with an ‘unknowingness.’”
Albert’s naïveté is also evident in how she develops in her relationship with Hubert. Albert observes the closeness Hubert shares with her wife, Cathleen (Bronagh Gallagher), with a curious eye. In one scene, Albert wonders aloud if Hubert told Cathleen she was a woman before or after their wedding.
Close offered this insight about the character’s perspective: “She’s worked for 30 years, and you think she would know more, but she doesn’t want to know more. It would jeopardize her secret. She tells Hubert she moved around — which is taken directly from the original story — because she was afraid of being found out.”
While Albert and Hubert are both practicing deception, Joe is also passing himself off as someone he is not — pretending to be a boiler’s apprentice to get a job at the hotel. His interactions with the staff form the love triangle, which comes to a critical head.
“I think Joe has an unbearable life,” Close acknowledged about the film’s key male character. “He is someone who is illiterate, and from an abusive background, with a vicious father. He is used to being beaten up, and abuse creates abuse. What I love about Joe is that he realizes this. He doesn’t want to become his father, or be in that vicious cycle. He survives in the only way he can. I respect him for that.”
She also praised the character of Hubert, who defies the established gender roles of the times. “Women had no rights then, so Hubert becomes a hero to me.”
In addition, Close has tremendous respect for director Garcia, who is the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “It was a very natural relationship,” she observed about collaborating with the filmmaker. “Rodrigo reminded me of Robert Altman — he was so inclusive.” But, she disclosed, she had concerns about working as a producer and writer as well as an actor.
“I would often throw out ideas, and because we worked fast, one had to speak up. When I would speak up, I would feel sick because I didn’t want to be construed as undermining Rodrigo. We came to the point where we were totally on the same page on the set.”
Close’s perseverance in front of and behind the camera has paid off. What’s more, it is evident throughout “Albert Nobbs.” Resolve proves to be the key to the characters, Close’s performance and the film itself.