On May 11, Broadway’s Norma Desmond visited LIVE with Kelly & Ryan to talk about her time in the current revival of Sunset Boulevard. Host Kelly Rippa took Glenn Close on a trip down memory lane to when she first came to New York in 1974.

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“I got hired by the Phoenix Theatre Company doing three plays on Broadway and I was an understudy for three of the leads,” said Close. “The first show … the leading lady was fired just before opening night and I went on with no understudy rehearsal.

“I went out there and because I was so new and so hungry and so green, I had learned all the lines,” she continued. “You want a chance, in this business nobody knows what you can do until you can do it. As an understudy in my first job it was really frustrating but it was a great lesson because someone’s misfortune was my chance.”

Close also spoke about the richness of returning to the role, why she doesn’t get nervous anymore, and who holds the place of show mascot.