Glenn Close Tears Up And Gets A Standing Ovation During Emotional Golden Globes Acceptance Speech

Congratulations, Glenn Close! The 71-year-old actress took home the coveted Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama award at the 2019 Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 6 and delivered an emotional and memorable speech while accepting her honor on-stage.

“Thank you so much, Hollywood Foreign Press, this is such a great honor. And I’m so honored to be with my category sisters, and we’ve gotten to know each other a little bit so far and I can’t wait to spend more time with you. Everything that you did this year — or what you’re here for — is… we all should be up here together, that’s all I can say,” Glenn said, referring to her fellow category nominees Lady Gaga (for A Star Is Born), Nicole Kidman (for Destroyer), Melissa McCarthy (for Can You Ever Forgive Me?), and Rosamund Pike (for A Private War). 

“Oh my God, I just don’t believe it! It took 14 years to make this film… It was called The Wife, I think that’s why it took 14 years to get made. But anyway, to play a character is so internal and I’m thinking of my mom, who really sublimated herself to my father her whole life. And in her 80s, she said to me, ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything.’ And it was so not right. I feel what I’ve learned through this whole experience is… women, you know, we’re nurturers, that’s what expected of us. We have our children and we have our husbands, if we’re lucky enough, and our partners, whomever. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, ‘I can do that and I should be allowed to do that,'” she continued.

“You know, when I was little, I felt like Muhammad Ali, who was destined to be a boxer, I felt destined to be an actress. I saw the early Disney films and Hayley Mills and I said, ‘Oh, I can do that,'” Glenn concluded her speech. “And here I am today — it will have been 45 years in September that I am a working actress and I cannot imagine a more wonderful life… Thank you so much.” Congrats again on your big win, Glenn!