| by
Dennis Hensley
Though she’s
been a working actress for over 30 of her 38 years—and
appeared on the cover of Time at 14--Diane Lane has never
been hotter than she is right now. With an Oscar nomination
in her back pocket (for playing Richard Gere’s cheating
wife in Unfaithful), and a handsome new fiancé
in actor Josh Brolin, the Hollywood veteran has, after years
of ups and downs, found herself with a plum seat at the popular
kids’ table. “It’s a real shift, however
brief the club invitation lasts, not be an underdog,”
reveals the actress, whose decades-spanning resume includes
such films as A Little Romance, The Outsiders,
The Cotton Club, A Walk on the Moon and The Perfect
Storm. “I don’t know how to give an interview
now because the, ‘Ah shucks, who me?’ shit kicker
thing doesn’t fly this week.”
“You
had trouble parking,” I point out, as we settle into
our seats at the Elixir tea emporium in West Hollywood. “That
sort of makes you an underdog.”
“That’s
true,” she says. “And my nine year-old Volvo’s
got to go. Even valet parkers are embarrassed for me. They’re
like, ‘Is that your car?’ I’ve got to trade
it in. I can’t go another day.”
Though Lane
says she’ll probably buy herself another “Mommy-mobile”—the
actress has a ten year-old daughter, Eleanor, from her marriage
to French actor Christopher Lambert)--a sporty Lamborghini
might be more fitting. She’s still riding high on all
things Italian, having recently wrapped Under the Tuscan Sun,
the big screen adaptation of Frances Mayes’ popular
memoir. “I have to say, it was very challenging to be
working in such beauty,” says Lane, who stars as Frances,
a San Francisco writer who copes with her sudden divorce and
writer’s block by buying a villa in Tuscany and starting
over. “It was like, ‘I don’t wanna be indoors
in the lights, I wanna run through this field!’ And
I just wish I could generate the kind of food that my character
had coming out of that kitchen.”
“I take
it cooking is not really your forte,” I say.
“This
will give you an idea,” she says. “Before I got
a waffle maker for Christmas last year, I thought that you
just put them in the toaster frozen and they come out toasted.
It never occurred to me that there was another way of making
waffles.”
Yes! The shitkicker
underdog lives!
GOTHAM:
Having gone through your own divorce, could you relate to
Frances’s quest to reinvent herself?
DIANE LANE:
In some ways, but Frances was blindsided so her circumstances
are very different than mine. A relationship that doesn’t
work out gradually, with both people realizing, is a very
different experience than just going off a cliff in a truck
that you thought you had another thousand miles of journey
in.
Does Frances
have a love interest? There’s gotta be some sexy Italian
guy whose name ends in O who happens by the villa.
Of course,
there is. The question that she keeps getting asked is, ‘So
have you met him yet?’ like there’s some guy that’s
going to come along and heal her. It’s like, ‘Does
Stella got her groove back yet?’ And I’m like,
“Just back off!”
What hooked
you about the project?
When I was
meeting with the director, Audrey Wells, a bulb went off in
my head, like ‘This is a gift, just accept it.’
I realized how much of an affinity I had for the character.
I could just offer up my own experience and it would suffice.
I didn’t have to go to Karate school or to a speech
coach.
You just
had to fake the cooking.
(Laughs) And
I do that everyday anyway. I just take the Styrofoam away
and “Ta da!” Plus, I knew that with Audrey as
the director, I was going to have a pleasant experience and
I was ready for a pleasant experience after Unfaithful
and my father passing away, let me tell you.
So it was
a bit of an escape for you?
Yes, but while
I was away, unbeknownst to me, I started to be offered up
like an hors d’oeuvre, like “Vote for her for
best actress.” My publicist said, “It’s
coming from the studio. They believe in your performance.”
I thought, ‘Gee, I hope I don’t disappoint them,’
because it’s like you’re their Greyhound dog and
they’re betting on you to win. So then I came home to
a full-blown Oscar campaign.
What was
that like?
I wouldn’t
wish it on anyone. I was very grateful that I had Josh because
I had gone stag through the majority of my career in terms
of these mandatory soirees and I don’t do them well.
I get all insecure and forget where I know so-and-so from.
I remember being introduced to a producer that I worked for,
but the movie didn’t make any money, so I was literally
a non-entity. He kept getting introduced to me at these parties,
forgetting that I had made a film for him.
What was
fun about the Oscar derby?
It’s
the feeling of being included in a club. It’s a brief
membership, but that’s the only membership they hand
out. And it was nice to have an excuse to deck out.
Did you
feel pressure not to make any fashion faux pas?
Oh yes. There
was one dress that was such a nightmare that I ripped it off
in the limo on the ride home and I was in my jeans, before
we hopped out to buy cigarettes at 7-11. I was like, “I’m
over this shit,” but that dress got more compliments,
even from people in my family. “I saw you in People.
You looked fabulous in that dress.” That goddamn dress.
(Laughs)
Have you
noticed a change in the types of scripts you get?
Well, it’s
nice to have options instead of, ‘This is the only game
in town. Do you want to be in it or do you want to wait?’
Now it’s a question of, ‘I can’t do it all,
I hope I choose wisely.’ I think there’s really
not much left to do that’s new in this business. I guess
the only thing left to do would be to not have the surgery,
and dare them to keep photographing me. I’m into that.
That’s what I can offer the next generation. (Laughs)
You can
be our reference point that we have something natural to compare
all the sci-fi looking people to. It must be strange to see
the lengths people in your business go to to look good?
Or to see
the really successful, subtle plastic surgery that I could
be going in for. I have to say, though, that’s rare.
I was talking with this woman the other day who’s my
mother’s age and I got so into her face and her expressiveness.
I could see the girl in her; the continuum of her life from
her twelve year-old self to now, and then I looked across
the way and I saw another woman who’d had work done.
And I thought, ‘You ain’t you anymore. We don’t
know who you are? But you ain’t you.’ Something’s
lost and I don’t think that’s a gift to anybody.
You recently
became engaged. Were you surprised when Josh asked you?
I was totally
blindsided. It’s what I wanted, but I was sort of thinking,
‘Okay in five years, I’m going to give him an
ultimatum.’
Did you
say yes right away?
Well, I wanted
the question to hang in the air so I could savor it. It was
so lip-smacking good, and he can’t ask it twice, so
let it just ring in the air for a moment.
When I
interviewed you before for The Perfect Storm, I asked
if you thought you’d get married again, and you said,
“I’d have to fall so chemically, intoxicatingly,
trustingly, hormonally in love that I needed the promise of
that bond.”
Oh my God.
(Laughs) Well, I have to say that if that’s my checklist,
then every box is checked.
Would you
ever want to act opposite Josh?
Yes, but later
because he puzzles me too easily right now. I’m too
vulnerable to his tricks still. (Laughs)
You two
first met years ago, correct?
Yes. I was
pregnant to bursting and visiting the set of a movie my then-husband
was in called The Road Killers. Everybody’s having lunch
and Josh, who was in the film, was in character. He was kind
of frightening looking and he had this predatory sexuality,
which I found rather alarming, considering how pregnant I
was. I thought, ‘Am I projecting this? If I am, then
somebody ought to slap me real hard.’
But you
kept these thoughts to yourself?
Oh totally,
because it was just a flash, a moment. Of course, I’ve
gone back to that moment many times trying to see if I could
remember more of it. But I definitely remember that first
impression.
I read
somewhere that you were re-introduced through Josh’s
mother-in-law, Barbra Streisand.
That’s
a myth. We met after a movie at a restaurant. I was with my
manager and he came by the table and said, “Do you remember
me?”
Still,
you should probably bone up on your Streisand CDs if you’re
going to be part of the family.
When Eleanor
came to visit me in Tuscany, we would play the Barbra CD in
the trailer. I think it was The Essential Barbra.
As opposed
to The Mandatory Barbra.
Then there’s
The Quintessential, which is the one before it. (Laughs)
Speaking
of essential recordings, you recently laid down an audio commentary
track for the DVD release of The Outsiders. What was
that like to do?
We had a ball.
It was me, Ralph Maccio, C. Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze.
We were like, “Hey, where’s Matt Dillon?”
“Well, he’s directing now…” “Where’s
Rob Lowe?” “Oh, Rob’s got a big series now…”
“Where’s Tom Cruise?” “Well, he’s
got his own jet and he’s somewhere else today…”
Those who showed up got to have the last say. It was fun.
What was
it like to look at the movie again?
I thought
of that Ava Gardner quote, “Aren’t we beautiful?”
I mean, I wasn’t even finished growing yet. And there’s
a whole courtroom scene that I do not recall filming at all,
but there I am.
Speaking
of teen idols, I read that as a teenager you used your Time
Magazine cover as a tool to meet Leif Garrett. Is that true?
That is true.
Without it, I was just another 14 year-old screamer.
I never
got the Leif appeal, frankly.
My dad used
to say, ‘You’re attracted to girls. You don’t
see that?’ And I’m going, ‘Dad, fuck you.’
Has your
daughter seen many of your movies?
She’s
seen The Outsiders. I’d forgotten about how violent
the film was, but within the context, I think it’s fine.
How old
would you want her to be when she sees Unfaithful?
Thirty-five.
(Laughs)
You were
born and raised in Manhattan. What’s your idea of the
perfect New York day?
First, I’d
listen to all the traffic outside and stay in bed until rush
hour was done. I’d roll out at ten and go to the Cosmic
Diner on Columbus Circle for breakfast. Then I’d go
play Frisbee in Central Park, which I can’t visit without
thinking about John Lennon. Then I’d probably take the
subway downtown and get lost in the Village. I get lost every
time I go to the Village. I might as well be in Wisconsin.
And my Dad was a cab driver!
How intense
was the Unfaithful shoot?
I took a year
off of my life. I’m convinced. I herniated my disk on
that film during a kissing scene. Today, I slept with a neck
brace on because I re-blew it yesterday. You know what I blew
it on? Reading and laughing at what I was reading, not something
like learning how to surf, but laughing at something I was
reading. The only reason I’m not wearing it is because
I don’t want to seem like some wounded bird.
I understand
that Adrian Lyne likes to do tons of takes. Did you appreciate
Lyne’s pushing you at the time or was it more after
the fact, when the accolades starting coming in?
At the time.
It was rare and notably appreciated by me, to come home and
go, “Holy cow, I couldn’t have done any more than
I did today.”
What did
you think when you first read the sex scenes in the script?
The sex scenes
weren’t visited upon with descriptive dialogue in the
screenplay, but I did know Adrian Lynne was going to be filming
it, so I could fill in the blanks. It felt like a dare to
say yes to this job. So I said to Adrian, “You want
me to trust you a hundred percent? Okay. I’ll film everything
for you, but if I’m not comfortable with it when you
show it to me, then I have the right to say no.” He
never showed me anything that was gratuitous.
It must
have been nice to make a movie about adults for adults?
Instead of
the fourteen year old demographic? I did feel like it was
an honest look at the immaturity of adults who are trying
their best to kid themselves that they’re being mature.
The scene
of you returning home on the train and remember your first
with Olivier Martinez is my favorite. What do you remember
about shooting it?
I remember
Adrian saying to me, “This is our last available moment
to film in the train.” I really appreciated that because
I like to get it in five takes. If he’s got three days
on the train, we’ll be there three days and he’ll
get ninety-eight takes. I said, “You want it in one
take? You think I can do it? Hit it!’ And so I freaked
out.
Do you
feel pressure to make the most of this time?
Well, I’ve
always been a little leery of hitting the bulls-eye, because
then you become then you become the bulls-eye chart. So I
have to shut out any voices that want to tell me what to do
be guided by some natural proclivity that I have.
At least
you always know that you went with your gut.
Except in
the case of Judge Dredd. (Laughs) I didn’t want to make
that movie. My agents went, “It’ll increase your
foreign stock.” I said, “If it turns out the way
I’m afraid it will, I’m going to fire you.”
And I did.
You seem
to have a very healthy attitude about the ups and downs of
the business. Do you ever encounter people who are more high
strung about it all, like everything is a life and death decision?
I have people
who are even more concerned than I am about my own career.
Like, “Oh
my God, Diane, if you don’t go to this party, you’re
career is over!”
“You’re
not gonna go to this party?” Or “You don’t
want to fight about the photograph that they’re using
of you in the poster?” Look, I know that making money
off movies is very important, but nothing can buy word of
mouth and nothing works like word of mouth. And thank God,
or we would literally be on the receiving end of a conveyor
belt that we don’t want to be eating.
When you’re
shooting a movie, can you tell instinctively if it’s
going to work?
I’m
always surprised. I’ve had experiences where I’ve
felt completely connected and I’ve been mistaken. Other
times, I feel lost and it flies. But I would prefer to feel
it and have it not be there on screen, than feel lost and
find it on screen. I want that feeling. I want the experience.
What are
your favorite guilty pleasures, like bad TV or woofing down
junk food?
For me, an
indulgence is giving myself a manicure and pedicure. I feel
self-love. It’s like, “Look at your toenails and
fingernails, you see? You’re gonna pull through this.”
Or just going home and eating a goddamn quarter pound of brie.
I like the salty fat foods more than the sweet.
Speaking
of sweet, how would you describe this time in your life?
It’s
like everything’s at eleven on the dial at once. It’s
euphoric yet hair-raising. Sometimes my life flashes before
my eyes so quickly, I think, ‘Bring on fifty. I just
want put my feet up and not be photographed for a living and
go and reinvent myself somewhere.’ But then there’s
the other side of feeling extremely grateful and realizing
the great significance of choosing wisely right now. My daughter
really needs me, I’m in the beginning of the most important
relationship I’ve ever had and suddenly everybody’s
paying attention to what I do in my career. It’s easy
to become overly analytical but I would prefer to be more
off the cuff about things.
And enjoy
it.
That’s
the one piece of advice that Richard Gere gave me. He was
like, “Would you please make sure you enjoy this.”
And I was like, “Okay, I have my orders. I’ll
try.”
And you
are.
And I am.
Oh, totally, totally, totally.
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