The DeVil Within
Wednesday, November 27, 1996
Glenn Close, famous for her chilling film portrayals, stars as the deliciously devilish Cruella DeVil in Disney's "101 Dalmatians."
Taking on what might be the nastiest role of her career, Glenn Close describes her experiences as Cruella DeVil in the remake of the classic Disney cartoon, '101 Dalmatians.'By Emily Forster
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
hen films are remade, actors are often intimidated by the prospect of competing with a legendary performance. Even when the actor is a brilliant performer and the original film is a cartoon, the process is still daunting.
In the case of Glenn Close and the remake of Disney's "101 Dalmatians" into a live action feature film, there was enormous pressure to get the performance of Cruella DeVil just right. Close's role, described by Movieline magazine as "the biggest bitch in motion picture history," led Close to exhaustive research. The actress did everything in her power to make the new DeVil as deliciously devilish as the old.
"In the beginning I was very intimidated," Close says. "I have great respect for the original. In fact I lifted a lot of the dialogue from the original and used it in the movie because she's really mean in the original. In John Hughes's first version (of the script for "Dalmatians"), she wasn't that mean. I really liked what the original character said, so if you notice, there are a lot of lines that I stole."
Close used more than plagiarism to create a DeVil for the '90s without straying from the original. Sitting back with a shortly-cropped head of hair and a relaxed smile, the actress, famous for chilling performances in films like "Fatal Attraction" and "Dangerous Liaisons," knows full well that she was the first choice for the role of DeVil. It is clear, however, that she still put in tremendous effort, despite her valued status, as Close recounts the many hoops she jumped through in order to find the perfect DeVil.
The first struggle with the role was deciding how far to take it. There were questions as to how outlandish Close's character should get.
"I didn't want to do something really, really campy," Close says. "She's definitely larger than life, and she does happen to be the devil, but I could have gone a lot further."
Although Close could have pushed her performance further, "Dalmatians" co-star Jeff Daniels was impressed by just how outrageous Close got.
"Just watching Glenn come in and go for it was enjoyable," Daniels recalls. "Having done 'Dumb and Dumber,' when you're really out there, it was nice to see somebody else out there."
But even more impressive than acting outrageously, Daniels admired his co-star's believability.
"I thought she was so big and broad and believable," Daniels says. "Those guys who go for (characters that are) big and broad and are still believable  it's really hard to do and I admire those guys who do it. I was so thrilled that she went for it. I was blown away."
But a lot goes into making a performance that can blow people away. Her appearance, especially, was an important way to amplify the demonic virtue in Cruella's nature. Close and a team of make-up and costume designers went through a wild pursuit for the right look for DeVil.
"We collaborated starting in September for something we started shooting in January," Close recalls "It took a long time to come up with the look of the face. We experimented a lot because we were starting out with a cartoon character. We ran the gamut. We started out scary, because I didn't know if we should go the direction of the Joker in 'Batman.' But then it came back to refining. Basically you have a very glamorous woman who's distorted by her soul, by her character, rather than some mask that you apply onto her."
Although nothing synthetic was applied to Close's face, her body was wrapped in seriously constricting costumes and corsets. She found her wardrobe so painful to wear that she forced herself to shed pounds from her already slender build.
"I've had a lot of experience in period costumes with corsets," Close says. "With corsets, the thinner you are, the more comfortable you are. It's as simple as that. When I had costume fittings for this, I couldn't keep the corset on for more than 15, 20 minutes and that was very worrisome. The costume needs a very exaggerated shape, which means you had to be very restricted, and I just wanted to be as comfortable as possible because you can't interrupt filming every 20 minutes to take off your corset."
Even with the weight loss, Close was still uncomfortable in costume. It kept her from visiting the set of Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet," which happened to be filming in London at the same time as "101 Dalmatians." But in spite of the fact that Cruella's clothes kept Close from even sitting down, she forced herself to make an appearance on the neighboring set when Robin Williams, who has a small part in the film, came around for the day.
"My costumes were so bizarre, and so I honestly couldn't go onto a set looking the way I did," Close says. "But I went to one of their rehearsals and I stopped in when Robin Williams was there. I went in full Cruella drag to surprise him and that was fun."
While Close had fun visiting the set of "Hamlet," things were not quite so cheery on the set of "Dalmatians." Busy trying to act as horrifying as possible, Close had to endure the sadness of putting sweet Dalmatian puppies into a frenzied state of terror.
"I only had two scenes with the dogs, but it was terrible," says Close. "I hated it because they were terrified, especially in the scene where I come to buy the puppies. I came up to them and Little Perdy ran off the set three times. She was very frightened by my aura."
Close's aura has inspired a lot of fear in audiences throughout her career. In her most recent acting endeavor as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," she pulls off yet another intelligent, determined and seriously psychotic character. But Close insists that each of these strong women she plays are not at all similar.
"I don't think Norma has anything to do with Cruella, except Norma had three-and-a-half-inch heels and Cruella has four-and-a-half-inch heels," Close jokes. "I really fall in love with all these characters. In the process of creating them, you get great empathy for them. If you go into it thinking, 'I'm going to play a monster,' I think that means you've distanced yourself."
And it is obvious that Close is not one to distance herself from anything. As she works on her latest project, tentatively titled "Air Force One," Close finds herself in yet another strong female lead role. She seems resigned to the fact that Hollywood has type-cast her as the epitome of a strong woman.
"In 'Air Force One' I play the Vice President of the United States," Close announces, then smiles and adds, "in four-and-a-half-inch heels."
FILM: "101 Dalmatians" will open in theaters today.
Walt Disney Pictures
Director Stephen Herek prepares to shoot a scene with Glenn Close on the set of "101 Dalmatians."
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