Glenn Close receives lifetime award in San Sebastián

She ate txangurro, drank txakoli, sang during the press conference and sampled the nightlife alongside her daughter ? Glenn Close's trip to the San Sebastián Film festival to collect her Donostia Award for lifetime achievement was a fairly full one. And so was her appearance before the press on Sunday in which answered everything she was asked about, even if she did keep returning to the promotion of her new film Albert Nobbs, which she co-produced, co-wrote and stars in.

In the movie, which is directed by Rodrigo García, she plays a desperate woman who passes herself off as a man to get a job as a waiter in a hotel in Victorian-era Dublin. "I portrayed Albert Nobbs Off-Broadway in 1982, when we adapted it from a short story," she explains. "It was an austere work, like mime, very pure. Ten years ago I was at the point of getting the film off the ground and then we lost the opportunity. It's the first time I've produced for the cinema. Not a penny of Albert Nobbs came from Hollywood. I'm very proud of having achieved it."

And what about playing a woman pretending to be a man? "Men and women are very different. Us women are very complex. It's difficult to live among both sexes. Or at least that's what I thought before. Things change and now I have a wonderful husband. In Hollywood it's much easier to survive as a man. And I've been lucky. What's more, I've always thought that if the roles didn't arrive, I'd have to create and produce the films myself."

The role has Oscar nomination written all over it. It would be her sixth nod, though she has never won. "I'm very fatalistic, I don't talk about the Oscars because I don't talk about things until they happen. As for the Donostia Award, I am incredibly moved. When you begin a career, you never know where you're going to reach. A moment comes when you discover you have a great resumé. [...] To receive a prize for something as fragile as the life of an actor really humbles me. It is a great moment for me."