Why Glenn Close hated the ending of her iconic film

It earned her an Academy Award nomination – but Glenn Close had a big problem with one of her most iconic roles.

Glenn Close was initially “furious” with the ending of Fatal Attraction.

On this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress said she did “a lot of research with psychiatrists” before playing Alex Forrest, who obsessively stalks Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) and his family after having an affair with him when his wife is away.

In the original ending of the film, Alex mimics her love of Madame Butterfly by cutting her throat with the same knife used in the opera.

“When they tested it, the audience hated her so much for coming between that perfect little family — even though he cheated on his beautiful wife — that they felt she needed to be punished even more,” Close told host Drew Barrymore.

Close at this year’s Golden Globes. Picture: Etienne Laurent/AFP

Close and Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction.

When production told Close they wanted to reshoot the ending to have Alex come back one more time and attack Dan’s wife before ultimately getting killed, she was not on board.

“The research that I had done — this is a woman who had been molested by her father. She would’ve done herself in before she would’ve killed. She was not a psychopath,” she explained. “So when they came back to me and said, ‘No, no, no. She’s gonna attack the wife,’ I said, ‘I won’t do it. That’s not who that woman is.’”

The actress ultimately lost the battle with the production team.

Close remembered passionately pleading her case in a meeting with director Adrian Lyne, a producer, and Douglas.

“I was saying, ‘What if it was you?! What if it was your character?! What would you do?!’” she recalled. “I got so furious! And [Douglas] said, ‘Hey, babe. I’m a wh**e.’”

“I called one of my great friends at the time and he said, ‘You’ve made your point. Now you’ve gotta go with the team,’” she added.

While Close ultimately lost the battle over how the film ended, the role did earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. So, it all worked out in the end.

This article originally appeared in Decider and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Why Glenn Close hated the ending of her iconic film