Glenn Close in Dublin for movie premiere

Actors Brenda Fricker and Glenn Close at Dublin's Savoy Cinema for the Irish premiere of Albert Nobbs.Photograph: Brian McEvoy

ORLA TINSLEY

ACTOR GLENN Close cheerfully dispelled the notion of Oscar rivalry with fellow actor Meryl Streep at a film premiere in Dublin at the weekend.

“People would like to think so,” quipped Ms Close, the six-time nominated actor, speaking on the red carpet at Dublin’s Savoy Cinema. She was in Ireland for a special screening of the movie Albert Nobbs as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Both Close and Streep are nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role next Saturday night – Close for the role of Albert Nobbs, which she co-wrote, produced and starred in; and Streep for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady .

“I’m so thrilled for our team to be nominated,” Ms Close said, glowing in an emerald green dress. She was delighted to be in Ireland. “It would never be the movie that it is if it hadn’t been done here,” she said.

The film recently won three Irish Film and Television Awards, including an International Actress award for Close, and has been nominated for two Oscars, including Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Janet McTeer.

The film is based on a short story by Irish novelist George Moore and was shot almost entirely at Cabinteely House in Dublin. It tells the convoluted story of a woman in 19th-century Ireland who is gang raped in her early teens and makes the decision to disguise herself as a man to live and work as a waiter at Morrison’s Hotel.

Close started her journey with Albert when she played the character in a 1982 off-Broadway production and said she was struck how the audience were consistently blindsided by the tale of survival. The actor, who grew up in a cult until she was 22, said despite the 14 years the film took to make, its issues of identity were still relevant to an audience today.

“She [Albert] chose a very smart thing to disappear into, a profession in which you’re supposed to be invisible, but you take the trauma with you,” she said. “We all know more and more today about post-traumatic-stress disorder and what that does to you.”

She also said women dressing as men in 19th-century Ireland was “more common than people are aware of. It was one way a woman could actually work”.

Irish writer John Banville, who co-wrote the script, said Close contacted him 10 years ago with the idea. “What I liked about this is that you never know what’s going on and we decided that from the start. It wouldn’t be about gender or sexual preference. It’s a wonderful little story about small people trying to live dignified lives,” he said.

Also at the screening were cast members Brenda Fricker and Bronagh Gallagher, and President Michael D Higgins. The President, who attended with his wife, Sabina, praised it as “a wonderful movie and wonderful production”.

Speaking to the crowd after the screening, Ms Close thanked the supporters of the film, and the Irish Film Board “from the bottom of my heart”.

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