Glenn Close has revealed plans to try and remakeFatal Attractionthrough the eyes of her character Alex Forrest. Adrian Lyne’s 1987 psychological erotic thriller starred Michael Douglas as Dan Gallagher who has an affair with Close’s Forrest character. After Gallagher breaks it off, Forrest goes off the rails and becomes unstable, stalking Gallagher and his family, even going as far as to boil the family’s pet rabbit. The bunny boiling scene quickly became a part of the cultural lexicon and is still used to this day to describe an “emotionally unstable and likely to be dangerously vengeful” person.
While many look at the Alex Forrest character as the villain ofFatal Attraction,Glenn Closebelieves that now is the time to tell the story through her character’s eyes. Close has looked back at her character in another light and she believes it’s time for audiences to do the same. “Fatal Attractionwas a movie that touched a very, very raw nerve between the sexes,” says the actress upon looking back. Now, it’s time to look at the movie through another lens. She explains.
“We’ve gone back to Paramount to find out, because they own the title. I think they’ve had some things in the works, but I do think it would be interesting to take the exact story basically, anddo it from her point of view. I think she’d become a tragic figure, rather than perceived as an evil figure.”
InFatal Attraction, many assumed thatAlex Forrestwas just an unstable crazy person. When Glenn Close researching her role, she took the story to two psychiatrists and asked if Forrest’s behavior in the movie could be possible and if it was indicative of any mental illness. Close went on to describe more about what was going on with Forrest behind-the-scenes and thinks that she should have seen a shrink. Close had this to say.
“She (Alex Forrest) was incested at an early age by her father, which would make it difficult to have a full relationship, especially if you were a child andturned into a sex object. This explained why she would spy on him, and giving the rabbit to the little girl, when she runs to the bushes and throws up. What did it trigger, what did it force her to do? It’s easy to make fun of and make unbalanced people the bad guy - that perpetuates the stigma. If it’s not a Nazi or the Taliban, it’s a mentally ill person.”
If Paramount agrees, Glenn Close will remakeFatal Attractionand tell the storythrough the female perspective. She says, “I do think it would be interesting. It would be very upsetting to do it from her point of view.” Shedding light on possible mental illness and a focus on Alex Forrest’s perspective could make for a very interesting movie that flips the tables and ends up giving a sympathetic view of a character who Close once called, “the most hated woman in America.”
Fatal Attractionsparked the “crazy woman” movie, which continued into the 1990s and included films likeBasic Instinct,Single White Female,The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and others. In those movies, the women are portrayed as crazy, but there isn’t a backstory explaining the motivations behind these actions. Let’s hope that Glenn Close is able to get herFatal Attractionremake going. you may read the original interview with Glenn Close over atDeadline.
