Glenn Close has always been cool. She made Cruella de Vil look badass in the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie long before Disney tried to turn Cruella into Girlboss Joker. She sexually confused a bunch of people who watched Fatal Attraction, without knowing if they were absolutely terrified of her or attracted to batshit Alex. And, this year, she wowed everyone at the Oscars by not only remembering “Da Butt” from Spike Lee’s School Daze, but also by promptly shaking her butt for Lil Rel Howery when quizzed on if she remembered the memorable dance.
That Oscars moment went viral, with gifs and videos of her butt-shaking making rounds on social media. But while Close definitely has the moves, she didn’t actually remember “Da Butt.” It was just another excellent performance by the Oscar-nominated actor, that almost made it look like it wasn’t a bit. In an Instagram post featuring her sitting with Daniel Kaluuya, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and screenwriter Chris Terrio (who was her “gallant escort” for the night), she wrote that Howery planned the bit. “I knew that Lil Rel was going to quiz me about ‘Da Butt’ and all three guys helped me run through what I was to say. Darrell insisted that I mention the Backyard Band, on top of E.U., Suga Bear and the whole DMV,” she confessed.
But she didn’t know that Howery would actually ask her to do the dance—and we can partially thank Kaluuya, Britt-Gibson, and Terrio for that moment: “I had googled ‘Da Butt’ and watched Spike’s music video so when Lil Rel asked if I could do the dance…you can actually see me think of the video. That part was completely spontaneous. Daniel, Darrell and Chris egged me on!!! It was ALL their fault.” She also says the Judas And The Black Messiah stars are now her “friends for life” after the “Da Butt” moment, which is pretty damn heartwarming.