Glenn Close was harassed in a "very subtle" way by a "very famous" actor.

Glenn Close

Glenn Close

The 71-year-old actress insisted she didn't feel "threatened" by the man's actions but it made her "freeze" up rather than call him out on his behaviour.

She recalled: "I had one very subtle moment, when I think back on it. Nothing that threatened me, but just so subtle.

"It was at an audition, and the very famous, very big actor that I was reading with put his hand on my thigh. It had nothing to do with the character. Or the scene.

"It just froze me up. Because you're trying to do the scene, and all of a sudden you think, 'Why is he doing that?' But now I realise ... if I had said, 'Oh, that feels good,' who knows what [he was] trying to elicit? Or if it was even conscious on his part?

"But I really understand the freeze syndrome."

The 'Wife' actress - who has one child, Annie Starke, now 30, with third ex-husband John Starke - admitted her fame used to be "very frightening" to her daughter when she was young and her offspring used to get frustrated if she came home still preoccupied with her work.

Speaking to Lady Gaga, Kathryn Hahn, Nicole Kidman, Regina King and Rachel Weisz for The Hollywood Reporter's Actress' Roundtable, she said: "My daughter came up to me and said, 'I want you. I want all of you.' And she was three. They feel your distraction, if you are working ...

"The hardest thing for a child living through my [fame] is that they sense when people want their parents.

"It's the kind of lust of celebrity, and I think that can be very frightening to a child. Because it's like, 'She's my mother.'

"When Annie was really little and we would go in an airport and she'd see that face coming toward me, she would just go, 'Stay away. She's mine.' "