Glenn Close Came Up With The Summer Book's Nude Scene — And The Reason Will Surprise You

Glenn Close decided to go nude in her new movie The Summer Book. Her idea, her call, and it makes total sense for the character and the setting. At 78, the eight-time Oscar nominee is clearly not coasting.

What she said (and why it tracks)

Close told AARP's Movies for Grownups that the nude moment was driven by character and place. The scene is simple: Grandmother, alone in nature, takes a fully nude walk through the forest. It is Finland, after all, where the culture is a lot less weird about bodies than the U.S.

"It was my idea."

"I didn't want to put my clothes back on. It felt so good."

Worth noting: Close plays a grandmother here, and she just became one in real life earlier this year. Her daughter, Annie, welcomed her first child, a son named Rory Westaway Albu. Nice bit of symmetry life handed the movie.

The movie itself

The Summer Book adapts the beloved novel by celebrated Finnish author Tove Jansson. The film centers on nine-year-old Sophia spending the season at her family’s quiet island home in the Gulf of Finland. It is the first summer after her mother’s death. Her father is present but emotionally shut down, while her grandmother (Close) leads Sophia through a summer of curiosity, mischief, and gentle lessons about growing up and growing old.

• Glenn Close as Grandmother
• Emily Matthews as Sophia
• Anders Danielsen Lie as Sophia’s father
• Ingvar Sigurdsson, Pekka Strang, and Sophia Heikkilä in supporting roles

Release timing and the strike delays

After getting pushed around by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, The Summer Book finally opened in U.S. theaters on September 19, 2025. It is now playing nationwide.

Inside baseball angle: actors do not usually add nudity at this stage of their careers; more often they negotiate it down. Close flipping that, and doing it for character logic rather than shock value, is both bold and very Finnish of her.