Catching up with Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater

Los Angeles— It is always wonderful to catch up with great actors, which is exactly the experience talking to award-winning actors Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater, who all topbill the upcoming drama, “The Wife.”

Glenn, who is now 71 years old, is still charming after all these years. Of course we remember her for her amazing performances as the obsessed Alexandra “Alex” Forrest in the psychological erotic thriller “Fatal Attraction” (1987) and onstage as Norma Desmond for the musical “Sunset Boulevard” (1995). Her talented 30-year-old daughter Annie Starke plays the young Joan Castleman in the film “The Wife.”

Jonathan Pryce, also 71, was unforgettable as the original Engineer in “Miss Saigon” (1991) acting with our very own Lea Salonga as Kim onstage and winning both Olivier Award and Tony Award for his performance. He also made an impact as The High Sparrow in television’s big hit, “Game of Thrones” (2015-2016).

Christian Slater, 48, always impressed us with his titular role in the TV series “Mr. Robot” for which he has earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2016) with additional nominations in 2017 and 2018.

“The Wife,” directed by Swedish director Bjorn Runge and based on the novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer, follows Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) who questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm, Sweden with her husband, Professor Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) who is set to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Below are excerpts of our conversations with the three talented actors:

GLENN CLOSE

All photos courtesy of Janet Susan R. Nepales

On women taking the sacrificing role up until the Time’s Up movement:

The amazing thing is, the book was written a number of years ago and the script was written over 14 years ago. The fact that a story like this has such a different time coming to fruition is evidence of the kind of prejudice against that has been in this industry against stories like this. Any independent film, it’s hard to get made. But this one was particularly hard. It’s incredible that it’s come out at this particular time.

I have been in this business for over 42 years and the irony is that at this point in my life, I have never felt more alive and more eager for whatever is going to come next.  I am a very late bloomer. But a lot of it has to do with just figuring out who you are and then knowing that’s okay, to be who you are.

On how she encouraged her daughter to study acting:

If anything, she avoided acting. She was wonderfully, with friends and making up plays and she was incredible. I always thought she had a very natural talent. But she felt very much the double scrutiny that comes on children from famous people and for a long time, it was hard for her to know who her real friends are. She had great antenna and she is also always very articulate about how hard it is and to always trust that people want to be her friend for who she is. So that’s a whole other thing that these kids of famous parents have to go through.

But she took a year, she majored in art history and then for a year after College she had a real tough time. Then one day she came and said, I have avoided it for all the obvious reasons, but the only thing that I have ever wanted to do is act. So it was wonderful for me to see her in a part where she could actually show what she’s capable of.

On what advice she gave her daughter on show business:

She is a smart woman and she has observed me. She has taken that in and she is very much her own person. The only thing that I hope is that, she just got married to a wonderful guy, they have been together for ten years, and I hope that they can have a history together and build a great life together at the same time as being in this very tough profession.

On “Fatal Attraction” celebrating its 31st anniversary:

It’s interesting, I was just talking about that with somebody just a couple of days ago thinking how interesting to make that movie again from her point of view. Because you never knew her point of view really and you never knew the reasons for her behavior. I think that might be the difference between then and now.

I certainly have a more profound knowledge of the kind of abuse that her behavior would have created and that might have been more revealed if you took that story from another point of view.

On how she remains mentally sharp and physically fit:

I actually have never lived here. I have always been on the East Coast and that helps me. I have now more than ever realized how important it is to keep your cup full. I am trying to approach the world with the overflow than rather an emptying cup, which means that I know that it’s important to take time for yourself, with silence and thinking and reading and time with my dog, and that’s okay. There’s so much piled on us today that I need to keep simplifying.

On what she learned about relationships:

The most important thing is to know yourself and know what brings you joy and to be fulfilled as a human, as yourself and to be able to stick up for yourself. That is really important.

JONATHAN PRYCE

On the importance of ego to an artist:

You have to have a certain amount of ego to sit in front of a group of journalists. But certainly the character of Joe has an enormous ego and was happy to be out front about himself. As an actor, I think yes you have to have a certain amount, but you also have to have a certain amount of humility and self-questioning and a bit of doubt so that you can grow from that.

On his journey as an actor:

No I’d never wanted to be an actor. When I was very young, I’d wanted to be a rock singer. I used to stand in front of the mirror with a hairbrush in my hand singing away to Buddy Holly songs. Then as I progressed through school, the thing I wanted to do and I achieved some of it, I went to art school. Then I went to a teacher training college to train to teach art. You had to do a subsidiary course. I’d only ever been interested in painting and drawing and a friend said the easiest course to do that requires the least amount of work, is the drama course.

Being naturally lazy at the time, I signed up for the drama course. My emphasis shifted. Somebody saw me act, another tutor, and asked if I’d ever thought of being an actor. I said no, not at all. He said "you should and you should go to RADA, the Royal Academy." So that all fell into place, I went to the Academy and got my first job in 1972 and have been doing it ever since. I still paint a little. I draw. But acting became the passion.

On his connection to music:

I live my life listening to music. I have, along with many other millions of people; you call it tinnitus, ringing in my ears. So, I can’t stand being in silence. Silence is anathema to me because all I can hear is what’s happening in my head. So music is being played all the time in my house.

Also, in the theater especially, when I’m preparing to go on stage, I play music, and I play the same piece of music every night just before I go on stage.

On working with Glenn Close:

We’ve worked so much in theater and are used to having the rehearsal process where trust grows between actors. It’s shorthand for us that we immediately knew how to rehearse and how to play.

The rehearsals, the closest thing to the theater experience was we had at least a week of table rehearsals, reading through the script over and over again, so that when we came to be on set together there was no time wasted saying, what do we mean by this or what do you think’s happening now? There was a great deal of trust between us but also, we didn’t talk very much about how we were going to act the scene, we just were, together.

We understood those characters inside out. Joe and Joan is a long relationship, my relationship with my wife is 46 years and there are lots of things that you recognize in that film that come from a long relationship. Suddenly it’ll spark, you can fight, you can be angry and then you get on with life together. Because between Glenn and I, there’s that trust and love.

On the secret of being married for 46 years:

A long relationship? Well, we like each other. We certainly love each other, and we’ve grown together. My wife is an actress and we’ve grown together in the business. All that side of it is…we’re both aware of the pitfalls and disappointments. But it does take you a long time. It took me a long time, to back off and to just listen to the other person a bit more.

CHRISTIAN SLATER

On his relationship to journalism and writers:

I have definitely gone through different phases of writers that I have enjoyed. There is a writer whom I really appreciate, as a kid I was not a huge reader.  I was not a great student and I started working at the age of nine, so I was pretty much tooling around the country and school was something that I looked at a little bit more as a nuisance and not something that I was thrilled to be a part of.

But as I have gotten older, I certainly got more into reading and an author, Neale Donald Walsch, I love him, and I read all those “Conversation With God” books. 

Those have been helpful, just in giving me a perspective of a friendlier, loving God as opposed to this punishing scary God. So I like those and that helped to build a little bit more of a foundation of spirituality.  R

ight now, I am reading some books by this woman Roxanne Gaye, who is a feminist and I am in the middle of this book right now called “It’s Not That Bad.”

Pryce too.  Who is also one of the funniest human beings I have ever been around, which is not something I expected.  So he’s got just a great sense of humor.

On being regarded as the next Jack Nicholson when he was younger:

That was certainly a name and a label that was attached to me very early on and I have to take responsibility for it, because a 15 or 16 year old actor is extraordinarily impressionable. 

I had just seen “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and I have just seen “Easy Rider,” “The Witches of Eastwick” so there were all these movies at that time that had just inundated my head.

I admired this guy and loved his work and there was an element of wanting to project a similar image, because I thought God, he is so full of life and I couldn’t ignore that passion and that relentlessness. I just loved everything about him. 

So, initially coming into this business, you go from it being a lot of fun and then you go emulating or imitation and then you begin to question why you are in this business at all. Then you find a teacher and you start to expand your own understandings about what this business is, and then you begin to discover your own identity.

On whether he would allow his kids to be actors:

I wouldn’t want to impede on what it is that they are genuinely passionate about, but I would also want them to have a life and be kids and learn a lot of those qualities. I don’t think I would necessarily put them in some of the situations that I was in as a kid.

Not that I have any regrets about them because they were all very enriching and special experiences. But I am happy with how myself and their mother and my wife, have pointed them and allowed them to have a childhood and learn and grow in that respect, as opposed to pushing them out there in front of the cameras. They also don’t have a great deal of interest in being in this business.  Amazing! — LA, GMA News