Dangerous Liaisons
When I came out into society I was 15. I already knew then that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest to me, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork onto the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelist to see what I could get away with, and in the end it all came down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.
Glenn Close’s performance as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in 1988’s Dangerous Liasons earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Here, she explains to the Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont (John Malkovich), how she became a “virtuoso of deceit” (she started early).
