Glenn Close Gets Standing Ovation After Winning Best Actress in Major Golden Globe Upset

Glenn Close clinched the Best Actress - Drama Golden Globe win on Sunday, and brought the star-studded audience to its feet.

Glenn Close walked away with the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama on Sunday, and brought the star-studded audience to its feet with a moving and heartfelt speech.

The 71-year-old actress won for her role in The Wife, in which she plays a woman named Joan, who has sacrificed nearly everything to support her husband through all his accomplishments. After decades, she reaches her breaking point when he's slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Close pulled off a major upset over the favorite going into the race, Lady Gaga, who was nominated for her role as Ally in A Star Is Born. She also beat out Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy and Rosamund Pike.

"This is such a great honor," Close said, who was visibly shocked at her win and shed tears, and took time to acknowledge her fellow nominees. "We should all be up here together is all I can say."

Close later explained why the role meant so much to her, getting personal when she shared that her own mother felt like she was in the shadows of her father, and confessed to her that she felt like she had nothing to show for herself later in life.  

"I want to thank my mom who really supplemented herself up to my dad her whole life," the actress said, getting emotional. " ... Women, we're nurturers. We have our children, our husbands if we’re lucky, partners -- that's what's expected of you. But we have to find personal fulfillment. We have to follow our dreams. We have to say, 'I can do that, and I should be allowed to do that.'"

The audience gave Close a standing ovation after the passionate statement and continued to clap as Close reflected on her long Hollywood career. 

"Forty-five years in September marks [the day I became] a working actress and I can't imagine a more wonderful life," she said.

ET spoke to Close last August, and she talked about never winning an Oscar after six nominations.

"It would be nice after 42 years!" she admitted. "But, you know, I'm very sanguine about it. If it happens, great. It's not going to change my passion for what I do. But to be recognized with your peers is a very... It's pretty great."

"It feels really wonderful, I have to say," Close added of all the attention she's received for her role in The Wife. "I mean, it really is about the role, I think. I never thought that this would be that kind of a role."

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