Glenn Close (Air Force One) Air Force One
Glenn Close played Vice President Kathryn Bennett, the film's second protagonist. While Harrison Ford fights terrorists at 30,000 feet, Close fights the institutional pressure to remove a hostage president from power. She shaped the character through direct refusal — rejecting a scripted scene that would have undermined everything the role represented.
Clinton encouraged Close to take the role at a Jackson Hole party
Ford encountered Close at President Bill Clinton's birthday party in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and asked her to play the vice president. Clinton himself reinforced the pitch, telling Close: "You'd make a great Vice President." Twenty-four years before the United States elected its first female Vice President, Close played one as an ordinary fact of governance — no one in the film remarks on Bennett's gender or treats it as unusual. (variety)
Close refused the crying scene and changed the character
The script included a scene where Bennett breaks down crying at the Situation Room table during the crisis. Close read it and said no.
"One thing I remember, they had a scene around that table where she broke down crying. And I said, 'I will not do that. I don't think that would happen. Not my vice president. My vice president would not break down into tears. She would step up to the challenge.'" — Glenn Close, The Hollywood Reporter (2020)
The filmmakers changed the scene. The decision was not cosmetic — it altered the structural function of the entire Washington subplot. With a Bennett who cries under pressure, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment challenge becomes an argument about whether she can handle the job. With a Bennett who does not cry, the challenge becomes a constitutional argument about the limits of executive power under duress. Close's refusal turned a character beat into a political thesis.
Bennett's constitutional argument anchors the ground-level crisis
Bennett faces two antagonists: Korshunov in the air and Secretary of Defense Dean (Dean Stockwell) on the ground. Dean pushes the Twenty-Fifth Amendment — arguing that a president held hostage cannot exercise command authority — and Bennett refuses to sign. Her argument is that a fighting president is not an incapacitated president. The refusal is the film's most consequential act of governance, and Close plays it in two syllables: "No."
The result is that the film's parallel structure — Marshall fighting with his fists, Bennett fighting with constitutional law — holds together because both protagonists project the same quality: competence under pressure, without sentimentality.
Petersen's directing style suited Close's precision
Close remembered the Air Force One set with warmth, crediting Petersen's efficiency and humor with creating room for her performance.
"Being directed by Wolfgang on Air Force One remains a special memory. Even though the script was thrilling and incredibly intense, I remember a lot of laughs, especially in the scenes around the huge table in the War Room." — Glenn Close, Deadline (2022)
Petersen's remote-controlled rotating camera for the Situation Room scenes allowed continuous filming without conventional coverage — every actor was on camera at all times, which suited Close's preference for sustained performance over fragmented takes.
Close won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for the role
Air Force One earned Close a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Supporting Actress. The recognition was modest compared to her six Academy Award nominations for other films, but Bennett remains one of her most culturally visible roles — the vice president who held the line. (wikipedia)