Glenn Close Was Coached 3 Times a Week to Learn Farsi For Tehran : 'It Was Very Challenging'

Alexandra Schonfeld
·2 min read
Glenn Close attends Apple TV+'s "Tehran" Season 2 Premiere at The Robin Williams Center on May 04, 2022 in New York City
Glenn Close attends Apple TV+'s "Tehran" Season 2 Premiere at The Robin Williams Center on May 04, 2022 in New York City
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Roy Rochlin/Getty

Glenn Close put in the work for her role on Apple TV+'s Tehran.

At the New York premiere of the show's second season Wednesday night, the actress, 75, told Entertainment Tonight just how much preparation her new role required.

Close, who plays a CIA agent Dr. Marjan Montazemi on the second season of the thriller, said she worked with a coach three times each week to learn Farsi.

"It was very challenging. It has a different sentence structure. It's more like German, with the verb at the end. You use your mouth differently. It has certain sounds that we don't have in English," Close explained. "But I had a phenomenal coach in Anna Bayat, who worked with me on Zoom three times a week."

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Salon Aranya, Moshe Zonder, Behi Djanati Atai, Shila Ommi, Vassilis Koukalani, Arash Marand, Daniel Syrkin, Dana Eden, Shervin Alenabi, Omri Shenhar, Niv Sultan, Glenn Close, Shaun Toub, Elnaaz Norouzi and Shula Spiegel attend Apple TV+'s "Tehran" Season 2 Premiere at The Robin Williams Center on May 04, 2022 in New York City
Salon Aranya, Moshe Zonder, Behi Djanati Atai, Shila Ommi, Vassilis Koukalani, Arash Marand, Daniel Syrkin, Dana Eden, Shervin Alenabi, Omri Shenhar, Niv Sultan, Glenn Close, Shaun Toub, Elnaaz Norouzi and Shula Spiegel attend Apple TV+'s "Tehran" Season 2 Premiere at The Robin Williams Center on May 04, 2022 in New York City

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

She continued, "It's just a lot of -- you start with one word at a time, then sentences, then repetition, repetition, and then you have to learn the proper intonation, and then you have to say it faster than you think you ever can say it."

Though fans might have recognized the actress' voice on shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons and 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, her new role is the first time she has appeared on television since wrapping Damages in 2012.

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"It was just such a new experience. Everything was new," she said of filming the Apple TV+ series. "Filming in Athens was new. Playing an agent was new. Learning Farsi was new. Working with a multi-lingual cast and crew. Meeting with a lot of Iranian refugees. Playing a lot of backgammon -- now that always happens."

It's been a busy week for the Hillbilly Elegy star who attended the Met Gala on Monday where she wore a hot pink Valentino suit complete with matching gloves, an embellished grand cape and fuchsia drop earrings.

Season 2 of Tehran will stream on Apple TV+ May 6.