TORONTO - Glenn Close says she spent most of her career preparing for her gender-bending turn in "Albert Nobbs," a passion project she wrote, produced and stars in about a meek Victorian woman who passes herself off as a man in poverty-stricken Ireland.
The award-winning actress fell in love with the unusual tale of survival and repression in 1982 when she starred in an off-Broadway adaptation of the short story "Albert Nobbs" by Irish author George Moore.
Back then she had just begun her movie career with acclaimed turns in "The World According to Garp" and "The Big Chill," each of which earned her Academy Award nominations.
"I really didn't know movies that much," Close says of that time, which was nevertheless marked by a spate of remarkable performances that put her up for five Oscars between 1983 and 1989.
But Close was captivated by the bizarre 19th century heroine -- a naive hotel servant who loses nearly all semblance of her true self after decades of disguise -- and fervently believed the period piece would make a great film.
She would spend the next three decades bringing it to the big screen.
"It's a unique character and what I experienced doing it on stage ... was the power of this strange story. Whoever Albert is really elicits a lot of emotion," Close said during a round of interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"I just decided this is one thing that I am not going to give up on, I'm not willing to go to the end of my career and say I gave up on 'Albert Nobbs."'
Over the decades, Close worked on story ideas and recruited friends and colleagues to help bring the story to life -- she sought script guidelines from her "Meeting Venus" director Istvan Szabo in the early 1990s, pulled producer Bonnie Curtis on board after meeting her on the 2005 dramedy "The Chumscrubber," and secured director Rodrigo Garcia as they shot 2005's "Nine Lives."
Close even scouted her own location in 2001, when she went to Ireland to find a building that could be transformed into the Dublin hotel where Nobbs and his rag-tag cohorts of alcoholic waiters and saucy maids toil.
Preparations began in earnest three years ago as Close began to wonder if she was growing too old for the role. She spoke with Curtis and Garcia about what Nobbs should actually look like, and how the effects could be achieved.
"We really, really wanted it to be authentic -- that this could be believable to the people in the story," she says.
By this time, Close was working on her acclaimed TV legal drama "Damages." She flew out to L.A. to meet with a makeup artist and the resulting experiment was startling.
"There came a moment where he had finished with my face and I looked up and it wasn't me anymore," says Close.
"I actually started crying because I thought, 'This will be possible.' "
In fact, age helped add a level of poignancy to Nobbs' plight, says Close, who wore tight jeans, a navy blazer and flats for a day of interviews.
Close says she sought out actual vintage clothing from the era to complete the look, and took inspiration for Nobbs' awkward mannerisms from Charlie Chaplin.
Already, buzz is building that the film could bring yet another Oscar nomination for the acclaimed actress, but Close brushed away "speculation".
She heaped praise on her co-star, Brit actress Janet McTeer who portrays a confident painter who learns of Nobbs' secret and encourages the sheltered waiter to pursue a life outside her self-imposed prison. Brendan Gleeson, meanwhile, is a boozy hotel doctor who embarks on an illicit tryst with a maid.
Mia Wasikowska co-stars as a young maid who falls for a handsome tradesman with a dark past, played by Aaron Johnson, while also catching the fancy of Nobbs.
Close says all the elements of the film came together just when they were supposed to, resulting in the story she always wanted to tell.
"My almost 30 years of experience as an actor, (of) learning my craft, has informed every aspect of what I put into Albert."
The Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sunday.
