Glenn Close

Close plays Albert Nobbs, a hotel waiter, in this drama directed by Rodrigo Garcia. Nobbs is a woman who has been living as a man for 30 years in order to make a living for herself in 19th century Ireland. She meets Hubert Page, a painter hired to work on the hotel property where Nobbs lives and works, and is inspired to dream of a different life. Co-starring Janet McTeer and Mia Wasikowska.

People think it’s all about gender but I don’t think it is; it’s about how people survive and about how human beings need to feel safe. I think Albert is truly one of the great characters and the story, for all its basic simplicity, has a strange emotional power.