This pandemic has been tough on everyone, especially those of us who’ve actually taken this generational health crisis seriously enough to self-isolate (and, for example, not trail our suspect COVID breath back to mom’s house for Thanksgiving). On Monday’s Late Show, Stephen Colbert noted how he’s had to ask video-calling guests where in the world they are these days, with first guest Glenn Close noting that she’s been in work-free lockdown in Montana. Since February.
Now, no offense to readers in the Treasure State/Big Sky Country, but that’s not exactly the legendary Close’s usual Broadway haunt, and, while nobody here is suggesting or even implying that the acclaimed, Emmy- and Tony-winning thespian has gone a little funny out there in the wide-open spaces, well, there’s this:
That’s Close reprising her role as Cruella DeVil, complete with internet-bought wig, painted chopstick for a cigarette holder, animal-print long johns for a scarf (don’t ask), and Elmer’s Glue-attached false eyelashes. Now, the 73-year-old screen and stage icon did explain that she was all dolled up in support of a good cause (pal Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project), but, well, it’s a look. And then there’s this:
That’s a Close original, a Boca Raton wig enthusiast named Dar, who likes to sing breathy birthday greetings to unsuspecting friends (and who also has a whole Cruella thing going). As Close (sporting a delicate lavender hair-tint for the interview) told a tickled Colbert, you’ve got to amuse yourself these days. Plus, as noted, Close is no stranger to the makeup and wardrobe chairs—and has been in lockdown since February. In Montana.
She also told Colbert about her first-hand experience with knowing just how seriously to take a deadly, perniciously contagious disease, as her father was one of the first doctors on the ground at the onset of Ebola in the 1970s. Close (whose early life deserves an award-winning biopic of its own) told Colbert that all of the misinformation, willful incompetence, and all-out dumbfuckery (not Ms. Close’s word) of the current (and outgoing) Trump administration regarding the COVID crisis “boils my blood” on behalf of the courageous and hard-working people at the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, since, as she’s seen all her life, the men and women there are “some of the most impressive people that I will have ever met.” There’s no word on when Close will abandon her sagely solitary Montana perch (and costume closet) and rejoin society, but one can rest assured it will only be when actual doctors say it’s safe to do so.