Glenn Close delivers powerful Golden Globes speech to women: 'We have to find personal fulfillment’

In a powerful Golden Globes acceptance speech that earned the actress a teary standing ovation, Glenn Close had one inspiring message for women everywhere.

“What I’ve learned through this whole experience is that women— we’re nurturers. That’s what’s expected of us. We have our children. We have our husbands if we’re lucky enough, and our partners,” she said as she collected the best actress in a drama award for her role in The Wife. “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.'”

And that’s exactly what Glenn Close did for the film. The 71-year-old fought for more than a decade to bring Meg Wolitzer’s best-selling book to the big screen. “It was called The Wife. I think that’s why I think it took 14 years to get made,” she joked during her speech.

Much like her character Joan Castleman, who sacrificed her own career to acquiesce to the aspirations of her Nobel Peace Prize-winning husband, Close revealed the role made her reflect on her mother who “sublimated herself to my father her whole life.”

“In her 80s, she said to me, ‘I feel I haven’t accomplished anything,'” Close revealed tearfully. “And it was so not right.”

Close revealed in an interview with MAKERS that she learned from her mother and brazenly pursued her dreams of becoming an actress during college. “My senior year at William & Mary, I remember saying to myself, ‘If acting is what you want to do, do it!” she said.

“The next day, I wrote a letter to ask the head of the theater department to nominate me for some national auditions,” she said. “And it was through those series of auditions that I got my first job on Broadway that fall.”

Close admits she has built a reputation for playing powerful females, many of whom were considered “evil” or even “a bιtch.”

“There’s so many women in the world who feel totally powerless,” Close tells MAKERS. “And so if you play a character who embraces power, as a woman, it’s effective. And it’s very compelling. And I think, for some people, quite frightening.”

But she hasn’t scared off Hollywood. The American actress has won countless accolades including a three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards and now three Golden Globe Awards.

Read every word of Glenn Close’s powerful acceptance speech below:

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 and what you’re here for… We should all be up here together. That’s all I can say.

I want to thank Meg Wolitzer for writing this incredible novel, and Jane Anderson for adapting it. Rosalie Swedlin and Claudia Bluemhuber for the passion. It took 14 years to make this film, and I was attached to it. Thanks to my wonderful Kevin Huvane and Franklin Latt, who were behind me and said, “Yes, this is a great story, and we need to stay with it until it happens.” And you know, it was called The Wife. I think that’s why I think it took 14 years to get made.

But anyway, to play a character 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.

And I feel that what I’ve learned through this whole experience is that women— we’re nurturers. That’s what’s expected of us. We have our children. We have our husbands if we’re lucky enough, and our partners, whoever. 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.”

You know, when I was little I felt … [like] ]Muhammad Ali was destined to be a boxer, I felt destined to be an actress. I saw all of the early Disney films and Hayley Mills, and I said, “Oh, I could do that.”

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, Björn Runge, who is here, who directed “The Wife,” who trusted the close-up, who knew where to put the camera and how to light use. Jonathan Pryce— what a great partner. My daughter, Annie, who laid the foundation of this character. I love you, my darling. Thank you so much.