Shes wearing a white Tintin sweatshirt and zero pretense.
But if pressed, she does offer a rare insight into what its really like to own those statuettes.
Nothing but base metal underneath.
Credit: JILLIAN EDELSTEIN for EW
Thats classic Glenda Jackson.
Still sharp as a spike at age 79, shes a woman who says what she thinks.
In fact, before she was 40, shed won both of her Oscars.
Mike Lawn/Fox Photos/Getty Images
On screen and off, Jackson rebelled against male dominance.
Ill poke it in your eye if I have to.
Indeed, Jackson never had a reputation as the easiest interview subject.
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Brusque is an adjective often used to describe her.
But on this morning, her charm is incandescent.
Granted, she is not one of those demure English ladies.
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If you should probably contact her, the only means is via her landline phone.
In a room with Jackson, you instantly sense her presence.
Her strong baritone voice can rise in volume like a megaphone, and shes always listening and responding.
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Thank you for making me look human again, she jokes to the hair and makeup professionals.
How marvelous, she bullhorns.
Youre the envy of every child in the world.
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And you know, we can be funny about it, but bless him.
What your dad did was an extremely difficult thing to do, especially to be so convincing.
An hour later, the Force is still with her.
Andrew Winning/PA Wire
I just keep remembering theMillennium Falconand Han Solo and Chewbacca.
How could I forget?
Born into a working-class family in northwest England, Jackson entered drama school out of youthful boredom.
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The 1967 film version of the play triggered an outpouring of movie scripts.
Like Brook, Russell provided Jackson with a vessel to pour her energy.
Both men were transformative pillars in her career.
JILLIAN EDELSTEIN for EW
Their views gave me faith in my opinions, she says.
Great directors all share a basic thing, which is that they all know what they dont want.
They listen to anybody and take ideas about what could happen.
But they also know what they want when you show it to them.
Its very important for actors confidence, to try that thing that alters a reading into a performance.
Woman in Lovescored Jackson her first Oscar.
Jacksons assertion about the power of TV is underlined by her healthy palate for the small screen.
Why have I never seen them before?
Where the f have they come from?
Jacksons vocabulary, as you’re free to tell, turns bluer with her enthusiasm.
That verbal indecency no doubt endeared her to unconventional artists like Russell as her career was ascending.
In 1971, she reteamed with him forThe Music Lovers.
The movie, even today, is revelatory for its emotional nuances and non-sensational approach.
Best film script Id ever read, she says.
It was about relationships between people who wanted more than they could furnish.
Apologies to Uncle Sam, but in America, they think homosexual affairs are about sex.
But they are about love.
On the set, Schlesinger exhibited idiosyncrasies and insecurities that Jackson immediately warmed to.
Shed say, Well, I think its actually good.
And hed loosen up.
This was his routine for getting into the working day.
And to see it from a director was heartening for me and quite a relief.
His perspective came completely from what we all are really like as human beings.
Flawed, complex, unsure of ourselves.
For the next 15 years, she continued to work endlessly.
Ebullient, larger than life, funny, sensitive men, she says.
In the main, from Germany and Austria, she says with a shrug.
But I jib at the idea I won them, she insists.
I did nothing but the job I was given.
They werent earned like a gold medal or something.
As for her trophies, one resides with a nephew who borrowed it for a school project.
The other is up in the attic along with the rest of the stuff.
But even if shes blase about the actual hardware, will she at least agree about their cultural significance?
Or that a film like12 Years a Slavewinning Best Picture can affect social change?
Prove it, she cracks.
How can you say that12 Years a SlaveorSelmahas caused a fundamental cultural shift?
And then you have all these black guys being shot by policemen.
It doesnt work like that.
Would that the Oscars could change the world but, Im sorry, it just aint true.
That conviction is at the bedrock of why she quit Hollywood for social work.
When Blair supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, she was verbal in her criticism of him.
Jackson explicitly desired to level the playing field for women in politics.
Listen, the playing field is absolutely not level, she says.
Women are underrepresented in the arts, too.
And under acknowledged, be it painting or music or performing arts.
Thats been the situation for my entire life.
And Ive seen little change in that.
I find it staggering that creative writers still find half of the human race so uninteresting.
Men are always invariably the driving energy of stories and women are merely adjuncts.
In 2000, she threw her name into contention for Londons mayor.
But her own party rejected her in favor of a man.
But it became clear that even the Labour party werent prepared to ultimately give that to a woman.
It was a very interesting process to go through.
The argument is always that the culture has to change.
But what about politicians?
Lets ask them why is there is still this gender block?
So we aint by any means on that comfortable mountain of equality.
Thats a matter of semantics.
Certainly before the NHS [National Heath Service] had been introduced.
Medical help was for you only if you had the money to pay for it.
Equality as far as education.
Some of the building blocks of creating a civilized modern society came as the result of that social dream.
Thatcherism, to Jackson, represented the crushing of that dream.
I had seen the damage that shed done.
I heard her discount society.
The terrible, terrible seams that one saw.
The homeless and mentally ill in our streets.
Reagan, her great buddy, did the same in America…
Certainly the women who raised me were the antitheses of her philosophies.
Those women did not believe that you should walk by on the other side of the street.
Contempt for Thatcher still stirs within her.
And she suddenly slams her coffee mug on the table.
Acting like she was doing everybody a fing favor by coming there.
Of their reaction, she quips, It was very predictable.
And thus very easy to ignore.
She refers to Donald Trump as that nutcase with the worst hair in the world.
Whoever the Republican candidate is, theyre going to dig up all of her baggage.
Every email, Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, of course.
Theyre gonna beat her with Bill.
And thats because the Republicans dont have anybody who can take her on politically.
But Jackson can be sentimental, too.
She sometimes bumps into old friends from the movie world.
Amazes me, she says.
I may not see a former costar for donkeys years but we always pick up where we left off.
Thats one of the plusses.
She affectionately called them the between-your-feet generation, Jackson says.
Fans who had seen her on the television from their bed and felt so comfortable approaching her.
The same could be said for Jackson.
For the first time in 65 years, she is out of work.
She lives with her son and his family in London.
(She divorced in 1976 and never remarried.)
Performing again made her nervous but the format suits her.
Its such a unique form of communication.
The best pictures are on radio.
I can still vividly remember hearingThe Go-Betweenin the late 60s.
You could feel the heat coming out of the radio.
Still, its fun to speculate on which roles she might have played over the years.
Her stage presence hasnt diminished.
If anything, after decades in office, she can probably deliver a monologue stronger than ever.
And her sarcasm could cut cold steel.
Dont you dare send this viral!
No member of Parliament can be seen drinking anything besides water, she says.
I suppose theyre allowed to eat fruit.
But surely you would want a human being to represent you.
Or would you prefer them flown in by extraterrestrials from another planet?
Bye, she says with a wink.
