Glenn Close was Irons’s co-star in “The Real Thing.” It was a bravura production fired by star power, with Mike Nichols directing and the up-and-comers Christine Baranski, Peter Gallagher, and Cynthia Nixon in supporting roles. Stoppard had sought out Irons for the original London production, but he had already committed to a screen adaptation of Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck,” to be filmed in Australia. While there, he received a disquieting bulletin: “I heard that Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline had gone to see the London show. I thought, Well, fuck that. So I called my agent, Robby Lantz, and said, ‘If you don’t get me that role, I’m leaving.’ ”journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter