Cranky wishes he had done deeper research into the background of actress Glenn Close. If he had, he could have asked her about Tarzan and Jane as Played by Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen, performed by a school theatrical group she founded. With a shelf full of Obies, Tonys and Emmy Awards (not to mention five Academy Award nominations) we decided to stick with more important issues, and though we would have loved to discuss her killer performance in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, we met her at a Disney junket for Tarzan so we stuck (almost) to that <g>. In her StarTalk, Glenn Close discusses the creation of her very first animated character, Kala, the adoptive mother of Tarzan and this role in her second Disneyflick. For those of us who know the original E.R. Burroughs tale, the inevitable reference to the fate of Bambi's mother, and how Kala fares in Disney's Tarzan, was a question that was dying (sorry) to be asked. Close also talked about her work on the Stage, the small screen and, most of the time, about serious and vitally important Big Screen opportunities . . .

CrankyCritic: Lessee, in your last Disney flick, 101 Dalmatians, you were a vicious nasty evil puppy killer. [Glenn starts to laughs] Now you're a loving mother, even if you are an 800 pound gorilla . . .
Glenn Close: [laughing even harder] With a lot of fur on my back!
CrankyCritic: Is this a good job you've got or what?
Glenn Close: Yeah!

CrankyCritic: Since Tarzan is your first animated flick, what's it like acting to a microphone instead of with other actors?
Glenn Close: Very disconcerting. Very difficult, because a lot of acting is a reflection of who you're acting opposite. It's reacting to what someone is giving you. I found this to be very hard. It's a real challenge. I think, most of all, someplace in me is a shy person and when I'm confronted as an actor with a character like Cruella or Madame deMertouille in Dangerous Liaisons, I initially feel very shy -- like I would be if I met those people. So there's a kind of a process of getting to know the characters and getting under their skin and leaping in there and being able to make a fool of yourself. To do it so nakedly in a sound booth with just earphones and a script; I felt I had to take a deep breath and dare to make a fool of myself.

CrankyCritic: What of the challenge of acting solely with your voice?
Glenn Close: It's a big challenge. The challenge, particularly for Kala, was to convey her love and strength and her tenderness vocally, where it would stand alone. It's something you can hang an animated character on. You usually rely on your eyes and expression. A lot of times what you don't say is as important as what you do say, but here it's just all in the words. It's really voice acting. Word acting.

CrankyCritic: Nigel Hawthorne, who plays Jane's father, told me a couple of weeks ago that he had an animator sitting in the room, sketching madly as he did his readings, and that he worked off that. Did you have the same experience?
Glenn Close: No. No. I know that they were filming me, though.

CrankyCritic: Were you pleased that the section of the Tarzan story used for the film didn't include the Death of Kala?
Glenn Close: Yes. I've died a lot [laughs].

CrankyCritic: You didn't want to go down in Disney legend as another Bambi's mother?
Glenn Close: Yes, that's important. I basically analyzed all the great animated features as mothers, how mothers figure. They're all like the great fairy tales, where mothers can't exist, because if mothers existed, nothing dangerous would happen to their children. So you have to remove the mother, like Bambi's mother gets killed and all the others, up to The Lion King; it's either the mother doesn't exist or she's a wicked stepmother. In The Lion King, the mother existed but she wasn't the driving maternal kind of force. It was more Nala that gave the female thing. So I was very aware, as someone who had grown up with those great cartoons and analyzed them through the eyes of my child, that this was a very rare opportunity to play a very strong mother figure in an animated feature for children. And for everybody, I think.

CrankyCritic: You have a daughter?
Glenn Close: Yes.
CrankyCritic: We always think of Tarzan as a boy character. What's her take on it?
Glenn Close: She really likes it. Annie's pretty blasé about what I do. She's more excited about her new puppy or her friends than praising me for what I've done.

CrankyCritic: How long did it take to lay down your part? Cutting tracks for an animated film isn't a "Go in. Record a few hours and split" thing like people think.
Glenn Close: I think for me it was over a 2½ year period.
CrankyCritic: Is it hard maintaining the character in your mind over that period?
Glenn Close: Well, I don't. [laughs] That would be very weird. I'd be in an asylum if I did that. No, I'd get a call saying 'Can you give us an hour next week?' It was pretty much like that. If I had to do a character voice it might have been more difficult, but basically it was my own voice.

CrankyCritic: We take it you would have preferred to work with the other actors?
Glenn Close: I always felt that that would be easier, but I'm beginning to understand how that would be harder for the directors and animators. I think they probably have more control, and I'm not saying that disparagingly. They have a vision and I honestly felt like I was their instrument and, hopefully, I could fulfill what their vision was. If you had two actors going at the same time I think it might be harder; maybe there's overlapping as you get emotionally into the scene. I think it's probably more technically difficult for them to direct more than one actor, given what they have to achieve. I'm beginning to understand why they did that – because Tony {Goldwyn, the voice of Tarzan] lives in New York as do I. There's no reason in the world why we couldn't have done some things together!

CrankyCritic: At least you didn't have to get all dressed up to work.
Glenn Close: Yes! [laughs] Makeup is the bane of my existence. But they filmed me, so . . .

CrankyCritic: Was it a good enough experience that you'd like to do more animated work?
Glenn Close: I hope. Certainly with Disney; How that would happen I don't know because I would think they'd want (my) voice to be Kala forever. Unless they knew that you could do something *really* different. I can't imagine. We are doing 102 Dalmatians, so I'm going back into that crazy world. I'm looking forward to that.
CrankyCritic: When 101 was new, you told the press you couldn't conceive of a sequel. Were you surprised when they said there would be another? The story seemed to have a pretty solid and closed ending.
Glenn Close: Right. I love that character so I just couldn't envision what that story might be. But I'm very happy and excited. I really like the ideas that are being put forth, beginning with Cruella being in front of the parole board. There are scenes that I really want to see, 'cuz she's such an outrageous character. It's still very much in development stage though we hope to start shooting it in October with that. I think it's going to be a very strong story.

CrankyCritic: Did you keep your action figures?
Glenn Close: I have the one dressed in black. I keep it at home in my library on a shelf. I'm getting this kind of wonderful collection of dolls; I have a Norma Desmond doll that somebody made and I have a Sarah Plain and Tall doll that a local Kansas woman made. It's lovely.

CrankyCritic: What was your conception of Tarzan before you saw Disney's?
Glenn Close: I've been aware of the Tarzan story for a long, long time. I actually did a voice in Greystoke, very close to the Edgar Rice Burroughs story, although they took him out of the jungle. I thought it was a really beautiful script. That's all you have to go by in the beginning.

CrankyCritic: How do you see it now?
Glenn Close: I think this is a milestone. I think what they developed with the "Deep Canvas" is pushing the envelope for animation. I also think it's a stunning work of art, when you analyze the artistry that went into every frame of this movie, it's quite mind boggling. Having spent time out in the animation building and learning that each frame represents the work of at least 100 people, you know, you get such a respect for that art form.

CrankyCritic: And these films just go on forever.
Glenn Close: Yeah its great! I still have images of snow white in my head. It will become the fabric of our culture. And I hope it will be good.

CrankyCritic: Are you looking forward to going back up on the Broadway stage? Is it in the plan somewhere?
Glenn Close: It has been in the plan, yes. I feel that that's my home. Why I haven't done more stage is my daughter. I don't want to leave her every night for 6 months. That's still problematic.

CrankyCritic: You'll be doing another Sarah Plain and Tall....
Glenn Close: We finished it. Tornado watches of April in Kansas. Scary. It was amazing. I don't think it's ever been done on television. You have a series of three movies with the original cast spanning almost ten years. What's great is that in the first movie you see our children, who were ten and six and they're now nineteen and on. It's a very loved story. They do Sarah Plain and Tall in the third grade where I live. I think it's lovely for the children to see what happens in 1918 to this family. It's actually doesn't have a lot of drama in it. It's about this family when Jack Palance as Jacob, Chris Walken's father, comes back. He had abandoned the family when he was young. This one is about what happens to the family when he comes back. I think it will make a good ending.

CrankyCritic: Tell us about working with Phil Collins.
Glenn Close: It was incredible. The thing that impressed me about Phil was, first of all, his consummate musicianship. He's a great musician and I was ignorant about that. You never think about a guy who plays rock music having the depth of musicianship that he does. He is so generous. I had a hard time with his rhythms. That's why I sing a capella. It ended up great for the movie but I couldn't ever really relax into those rhythms because they're very difficult. They're deceptively simple in that little lullaby. I couldn't really feel it to the point where I could emotionally put it over so it evolved to where I started, alone, and he then comes in and takes off with it.

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