5 minutes with Diane Keaton

By Michele Manelis

5 minutes with Diane Keaton
With a formidable list of on-screen lovers, Diane Keaton, star of the new film And So it Goes, kisses and tells all to MiNDFOOD.

I’ve never had a bad kiss in a movie,” assures Diane Keaton.  After starring opposite such luminaries as Al Pacino (The Godfather series), Woody Allen (Annie Hall), Warren Beatty (Reds), Harrison Ford (Morning Glory), Jack Nicholson (Something’s Gotta Give), and now with Michael Douglas in And So It Goes, Keaton is something of an expert on the art of kissing.  No wonder Douglas joked of their more intimate scenes.

“I have to admit, I really felt the pressure following those guys,” he says.

At 68, an age when most actresses are glimpsing their careers from the rear-view mirror, Keaton continues to be cast in roles which still require a modicum of sexual appeal.  This very condition apparently precludes many of her peers from securing the same roles.  She shakes her head.

“I don’t know why.  I mean, I feel very fortunate.  But you know it doesn’t happen in my real life.  I don’t have a boyfriend.  I can’t even imagine going out on a date.”

Yet Hollywood’s alpha males, many of whom routinely negotiate casting approval in their contracts, evidently believe she’s in a category all her own.

“I guess they like me,” she concedes, finally.

Always up for a challenge, Keaton sings in her latest starring vehicle, as a widowed lounge singer.

“It wasn’t my idea to sing at all,”  She roars with laughter.  “I always wanted to be a singer but I just wasn’t good enough.  I wanted to be Doris Day.”  She breaks into a rendition of Que Sera Sera.

“And Doris Day is still alive, isn’t that fabulous? Those women hang in.”

Likewise, Keaton is a woman most definitely hanging in and more so, holding her own with the top echelon in her chosen profession.  She sighs.  “I should be retired according to the government but I don’t want to sit around. I want to be engaged with people and I want to try new things.”

Keaton seems perennially inspired and engaged.  She continues to pursue her longterm  passion for photography and has amassed a huge library of images.  “Anything visual inspires me,” she says.

She has also published her follow up to her best-seller, Then Again, titled, “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty,” that reflects on physical beauty and how the concept has influenced her life.

People never said I was pretty.  But I say in the book, life is like this, ‘Here we are; get over yourself, let it go.’ We are all unique and you can’t keep dwelling on your flaws but I have to say, I do wonder what it’s like to be beautiful – to be Kate Moss or Gisele Bundchen.  I wonder what that feels like. I wonder if it feels good. I’m never going to know,” she says matter-of-factly.

If wisdom comes with age, what has she gleaned from her life experience?

You have to be honest with yourself.  I’m 68. I’ve got 19 more years left if I’m lucky and healthy. I could live to be 86, like my mother, but I could also not and it could also get much worse very fast but the point is, you work with what you have and you work with those flaws. Those flaws can you help you out sometimes because you can’t get to right without being wrong.  It makes you human.”

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Print Recipe

BECOME A MiNDFOOD SUBSCRIBER TODAY

Let us keep you up to date with our weekly MiNDFOOD e-newsletters which include the weekly menu plan, health and news updates or tempt your taste buds with the MiNDFOOD Daily Recipe. 

Member Login