Veteran actress Glenn Close is an eight-time Academy Award nominee who is lauded for her brilliant acting skills. While Close is preparing to team up with a talented ensemble cast, namely Mahershala Ali, Caleb McLaughlin, Octavia Spencer and Rob Morgan for the upcoming yet-to-be-titled Netflix horror film directed by Lee Daniels, she was recently seen in the Netflix Original series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.
Led by Kristen Bell, the film is a wine-fuelled spoof parody of the thriller genre where an ombrophobic painter named Anna is reeling under her daughter’s tragic death and recent separation from her husband leading to a career hiatus. When a new neighbour moves in with his daughter, she begins spying on them and soon becomes obsessed with the idea of solving an alleged murder.
The eight-episode series did not strike a chord with viewers who felt that the series did utter injustice to the genre of psychological thrillers, making a joke out of itself by trying to parody it. While many were taken aback by the long-drawn sex scene involving Kristen Bell, there was a certain Glenn Close cameo that caught certain viewers off-guard.
In the finale, Close appears as an unidentifiable woman who sits next to NYC-bound Bell’s character, Anna looking for a fresh start. Close tells her that her trip to New York is for “business” following which Bell dozes off.
When she wakes up, she finds the seat empty and goes to the bathroom to find her seat neighbour dead, with blood running down her ear. Upon calling the attendants, the bathroom is said to be empty and Anna finds herself seeping into another hallucinatory ride when the attendants assure her that the seat next to her was empty, leading to an ambiguous and ominous ending.
Talking about how the showrunner Michael Lehmann approached her for the role, Close said, “They approached me out of the blue. And I was out in LA, which is kind of rare. I had enough time in my schedule to do it. So I said, why not? Sounds like fun.”
Close revealed that she always wanted to work with Bell because of her “great sense of humour” and “philanthropic” nature.
Close also revealed the only request she had before she signed on for the role. She wanted to “have gloves and look fabulous”. The attire made her character distinct and she apparently kept the costume after finishing her shot.
When talking about her character, Close described her as “glamourous” and mysterious who was probably “involved in something sinister”. She said, “My imagination could go crazy, but I think they wanted it to seem a little sinister and [for the character] short and very succinct” where she would not “fall into a conversation at all,” as she told EW.
She further added, “Everyone else has a story, except for this mystery woman. Her backstory is a mystery even to me.”
Watch the scene below:
