Glenn Close is the ‘standout role’ in the new Benoit Blanc Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery with Daniel Craig according to early reviews. She plays a righteous woman quivering with religious fervour – or “a sad character with no life outside the church”, as Close puts it – with the creepy habit of materialising behind people and making them jump. The movie opens in cinemas on November 26 and Netflix in early December.
It’s a far cry from Fatal Attraction, but she has a rare talent for a star of being a prolific character actor as well – Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians, The Wife, five seasons of the tv legal drama Damages, The Hunger Games, All’s Fair, and on.
Born 19 March 1947 2.12 pm she had a fractured childhood with her doctor father who had worked in the Congo, serving as personal physician to the corrupt ruler, the kleptocrat Mobutu, joining the Moral Rearmament cult when she was seven. She lived in communal centres for fifteen years before breaking away at 22 to become an actress.
She has described it as “a kind of psychological abuse couched in underlying misogyny”. Buchman’s Moral Rearmament movement posited what he called a “God‑controlled Fascist dictatorship” as a countermeasure to communism. She later said “I have long forgiven my parents for any of this. They had their reasons for doing what they did, and I understand them. It had terrible effects on their kids, but that’s the way it is.”
She has been married three times, with various other relationships and has a daughter.
She has an 8th house Pisces Sun in a mixed element Water/Fire Grand Trine to a 12th house Saturn in Leo trine Jupiter in Scorpio. Her Saturn is in a determined but bleak conjunction to Pluto on her Ascendant; with her emotionally intense Pluto opposition Venus in Aquarius in her 7th house of relationships and on one leg of a yod sextile Neptune inconjunct Mercury Mars in Pisces in her 8th. She is immensely complex, deep, defensive, difficult to get to know and tied into her grandparents’ generation with three planets in the 8th. As if that was not enough she has an Air Grand Trine of Venus (Moon) in Aquarius trine Neptune trine Uranus – with Pluto as the driving planet off the opposition to Venus giving her a powerful personality and image.
It is a miracle she is not more troubled than she appears though her relationship life a la Hollywood has been a constantly moving carnival. Her Sun/Moon midpoint, the marriage significator, is conjunct her 8th house Mars so togetherness would always be a fraught affair.
Mars on the focal point of a yod can be overly assertive/aggressive though being in the 8th will mask its more obvious effects. She has a reputation for insisting for or asking for auditions when roles were not offered to her – so that driving determination may come from her yod apex Mars Mercury.
Her Jupiter in the 4th may refer to her first happy 7 years of life as a child when she was close to her grandparents out in the country.
Without ever seeing her chart, my sense was that Glenn Close is a Plutonian/Aquarian version of Meryl Streep. Both dive deep and embody their role in a film, but, oh my…. Glenn takes it to a whole other level!
What a chart!! Look at all those retrograde planets! Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter. Also asteroid Chariklo and Black Moon Lilith. No wonder she has had to “push” so hard. Thank goodness for that Moon in Aquarius. Speaking of… her Moon/Venus conjunction in Aquarius trine Uranus… she is very attractive in a very unusual way.
Then I saw that “N” at the top of her chart.. with the small circle at the bottom???!!! Never saw that before…. Nessos, the centaur. Briefly, “themes of abuse, violation. cycles of harm and healing”. Right up there next to her MC and opposite her Chiron. THAT explains a lot.
I was struck by how a few important placements in her chart are similar to my closest female friend.. born 4 months earlier. The Pluto/Saturn in the 12th and the strong placement of Nessos. For my friend it is Nessos conj the Moon. She came from a very abusive childhood and has done more honest, raw and compassionate work on herself than anyone I know. She KNOWS how dark she can be and has found ways to own and transform that. She is the most trustworthy person I know. Glenn’s choice of film roles seems to be her way of processing her internal, raw, shadow emotions/thoughts, etc.
It’s a rare thing to find a partner that can hold space, love, honour and respect this type of chart in another. My chart is also a Shadow chart… and I’ve found I need to manage it carefully out in the world. I am blessed with a partner who embraces that in me! My friend has this too. Maybe, for Glenn, it is her daughter that can offer this for her. Certainly that Moon/Venus in the 7th, even though in the reserved Aquarius, would want and need deep intimacy. It seems that Glenn has found that with her family in Montana!!
She astonishes me with her talent.
Thank-you for this chart.
Wow.
Nessus post coming, hopefully tomorrow – a touch scrambled this week.
minor correction…. retro Saturn and retro Pluto!!…. not 2 Jupiters.
plus.. .with no Earth in her chart, film roles would be very grounding. And also her draw to living on a farm in Montana. Being in Nature is very healing for what I am calling a Shadow chart.
I look forward to that posting on Nessus (also Nessos) centaur. How intriguing.
Yesterday’s Guardian had a very good interview with her … “https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/15/glenn-close-interview-wake-up-dead-man-knives-out-mystery-cult-trump”
Some bits stood out to me … when she moved to New York she bought a cheap shelf which collapsed and broke a wooden troika she’d been given by her grandfather and collapsed in a puddle of tears. Then she put her emotions back into place and pulled herself together. Her Aqua moon bottling up emotions and then recompartmentalising them when they blow.
That she has some knowledge of astrology when she mentions how she has bad relationships and makes excuse for the guy whereas whereas her daughter just seems him for what he is. Quote – “Well, my daughter is all earth and I’m all air and water.” She smiles. “I’m not into all that but it’s interesting.”
She talks about walls and I read that as being that she compartmentalises many things. Maybe that’s part of why she’s survived Hollywood.
Looking at her chart, transiting Pluto would have opposed her Aqua moon in 1954, when she turned seven, which is probably when the transit which triggered to move to living with a cult. Transiting Neptune would then have moved into her Scorpio 4th house a few years later. And in 1969, when she left the communal centres, transiting Uranus was opposing her Sun which freed her from those.
Earth and water go very well together and so do water and air….both pairs need each other to grow.
Venus beneficial is said to provide blessed partners and moon is motherly so with venus-mother and child relationship is loving and supportive.