Mamaw isn’t amused. Three years after earning an Oscar nomination for playing JD Vance’s grandmother in the movie adaptation of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, Glenn Close has seemingly shaded Donald Trump’s running mate.
On Sunday, Close shared a smiling selfie featuring her cat Eve, writing that the feline “would have left a bleeding mouse head in the bed of anyone who criticized any kind of lady with a CAT!” Her words appear to reference Vance’s recently resurfaced “childless cat ladies” remark, which he used to denigrate people who choose not to procreate.
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The comment has earned harsh criticism from the likes of Jennifer Aniston (“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States” she wrote on her Instagram Story last month) and since been defended by Vance’s wife Usha, who told Fox News that people should focus less on the “three-word phrase” to understand that her husband actually meant “it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.”
Until now, Close hasn’t publicly nodded towards Vance’s role as Trump vice presidential pick or her involvement in Hillbilly Elegy, which since he joined the ticket has been propelled back on the best-seller list and atop Netflix’s most-streamed titles. In the film, Close plays Vance’s Mamaw as she navigates a rocky relationship with her own daughter and his mother, Bev (Amy Adams). Close didn’t respond to Vanity Fair’s previous request for comment on Vance’s political rise, but told NME in 2021 that the movie “wasn’t made with politics in mind. Ron’s intent—and I think he succeeded magnificently—is to tell the story of a very specific family.”
Perhaps a signifier of the film’s divisive nature is that Close earned both Oscar and Razzie nominations for her supporting role in Hillbilly Elegy, losing to Minari’s Youn Yuh-jung and Music’s Maddie Ziegler, respectively.
During his victory speech for US Senator in 2022, Vance thanked his real mamaw, Bonnie Blanton Vance, who died in 2005, and acknowledged their political differences. (Mamaw was a Democrat.) “You’re not always going to agree with every vote that I take, and you’re not going to agree with every single amendment that I offer in the United States Senate,” Vance said, “but I will never forget the woman who raised me.”