BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 06: In this handout photo provided by NBCUniversal, Glenn Close from “The Wife” accepts the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama award onstage during the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 06, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Hollywood veteran Glenn Close took home the Golden Globe for her performance in the independent drama The Wife. The accolade was widely tipped to go to Lady Gaga for her role as aspiring musician Ally in the Bradley Cooper-directed film A Star Is Born.

In Close’s acceptance speech, she talked about her own mother who sadly told her daughter in her 80s that she “felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything.” The actress, 71, teared up as she told the audience, “It was so not right.”

“I feel what I’ve learned from this whole experience is that women, we’re nurturers and that’s what’s expected of us. We have our children and husbands if we’re lucky enough…. but we have to find personal fulfilment. We have to follow our dreams, we have to say, ‘I can do that,’ and ‘I should be allowed to do that.’”

“So, when I was little, I felt like Muhammad Ali who was destined to be a boxer; I felt destined to be an actress,” Close continued. “I saw the early Disney films [with] Hayley Mills, and I said, ‘I could do that!’ and here I am today. It will have been 45 years in September that I am a working actress, and I cannot imagine a more wonderful life.”