A conversation with Diane Keaton: "I just like my laugh"

Diane Keaton sits in the lobby of the hotel "Casa Del Mar" on the beach of Santa Monica. She gets up, stretches like a long-distance flight, and says, "Hi, sorry, had to be, I've been sitting here half a day, have you had a long journey?" And even before you have the opportunity to admire her elegant outfit - camel-colored designer coat with a wide belt to ankle-length pants, under which black stockings with white polka dots flash out - you are in the middle of a conversation about Diane Keaton's favorite theme: the fear of flying. Whether sedative pills help or better red wine? Or both?

Diane Keaton at the premiere of the movie "Mad Money" in Los Angeles.

Then she notices how I look at her, reaches out her hands, shows her nails dotted black and white to match her stockings, and says, "Did I tap it myself this morning, just lacking the patience for a proper manicure. " Then the 67-year-old falls into the chair and asks me so interested, as if I am the most fascinating person she has ever met. She listens, without even interrupting me. No wonder Woody Allen could not do without her and Al Pacino worshiped her. Good listeners are disarming. Especially in the vainest business in the world.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You are considered a rebel. At the Oscars you performed in a suit, you never married, you became over 50 years old. What role do you play today?

Diane Keaton: The prisoner of the recreational activities of my teenage children. And I still prefer to wear pants.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Did your life go according to plan?

Diane Keaton: There was none.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: And why did you want to become an actress?

Diane Keaton: I've probably become an actress because I wanted to be loved by everyone.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Would not the love of a man have been enough?

Diane Keaton: If I had fallen for a man, then always with skin and hair. But never forever. I often confused love with passion. Today, both are no longer of interest to me.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: The serenity of old age?

Diane Keaton: My favorite topic! Unfortunately, I have no wise, universal advice for getting old. For that, I change my mind too often. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to change quite astonishingly even in old age. In any case, I am not one of those people who stubbornly adhere to their principles.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Which principle have you adopted in recent years?

Diane Keaton: The principle of togetherness. At 60, I had a phase in which I thought it might still be the right one. Meanwhile, I find the idea absurd. The train has left and I do not cry for it.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Was there a specific reason for this insight?

Diane Keaton: Only Realism. Let's be honest, from 40, the chance of a white wedding tends to zero.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: If I may say against: I only got married when I was 41.

Diane Keaton: Congratulations. Are you happy?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: That's it.

Diane Keaton: Fantastic. The American feminist Gloria Steinem even married for the first time at the age of 66. I'm not saying it's impossible. Only for me it would be unimaginable. When I came up with the idea of spending my life with a man, I was already too old to land one (she laughs). I was with great men. But marrying them would not have been honest with them and my life circumstances.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Living conditions can adapt.

Diane Keaton: I'm afraid adaptation is not my strength.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You knew very well what you wanted very early in your life. Where did this urge for freedom come from?

Diane Keaton: I was not as free as it looks. I had my own mind, but of course I wanted to like it, otherwise I would have looked for another job. My pursuit of public was the substitute for closeness. And I understood early on what marriage can mean. My mother felt it to me.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Your mother, you write in her memoir "Then Today," applied as a young woman as "Mrs. America" and dreamed of a career as a photographer.

Diane Keaton: My mother often disappeared in her darkroom. Even as a little girl, I noticed that she was suffering from an unfulfilled longing. She was an artist without a medium. I did not want to end like that. I wanted to be applause and in no case dependent on a man.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Does a relationship necessarily lead to a dependence?

Diane Keaton: Of course, independence is also possible in a marriage. But you have to be polarized differently than me. I tend to obsession. In addition, the example of my mother scared me off. The most important thing in her life was her four children. She had no education and was a very beautiful woman. She had no chance for independence.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Does beauty make you unfree?

Diane Keaton: My mother's generation already. It may even have helped me later that I've never been a pin-up girl.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: But you're not exactly ugly either.

Diane Keaton: In comparison to my idols certainly. If I could not be Audrey Hepburn, I had to draw attention to myself with other attributes. The only thing I liked about me was my laugh and my humor. Woody Allen always said: you'll never be too old for comedy.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Her new movie "The Big Wedding" is a comedy. In the end, you're the only one who does not get under the hood. Everyone loves someone, say in the movie, but I love everyone.

Diane Keaton: That's right. One could reproach me: Again a role in which I play a variant of myself. But I could not say no to Robert De Niro as an ex-husband.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Is this perhaps your secret of success, that you are always yourself in the film as well?

Diane Keaton: Well, I was not consistently successful. There was some hangover. But in retrospect, those were useful, because I was able to pursue my other interests during the breaks. I estimate that I have earned more in my life with real estate than with acting.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: In Los Angeles, you bought half a dozen old-Spanish-style houses, renovated them, and resold them at a high profit - one even to Madonna.

Diane Keaton: Spanish architecture in California did it to me. Spanish houses are so family friendly. Her simple elegance touches me. Maybe because my childhood in Orange County was shaped by this architecture. I fell in love with all my houses, mostly at first sight. And when I'm in love, I want to own and take care of myself. Would I have had the opportunity to win one Oscar after another? Probably not. Realized dreams can also be a burden.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Or did you not want to subconsciously depend too much on your great passion, acting?

Diane Keaton: Interesting question. For years I was lying on the couch, but that did not occur to me. I'm glad I'm not a big Hollywood star. Because this again involves commitments that I am not ready for. And it never was when I looked at it closely.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Seen from the outside, you meet all the requirements of a movie star. They have won all the film awards, from the Oscar to the Golden Globe ...

Diane Keaton: ... but deep inside, I thought I was an impostor. I thought I was only nominated for an Oscar because Woody Allen and Warren Beatty got the most out of a mediocre actress. What was that performance? Glory made me feel more guilty.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Did you suffer from bulimia for years?

Diane Keaton: There is no easy answer to this question. I was never fat, had no family issues and at the time was happy with Woody Allen. But something got me to build my own prison. Uncertainty, maybe. Hungry for recognition. But why could not I enjoy the recognition? I wish I had gone to therapy earlier. Talking helped me. Talking and listening. I'm listening today with the same hunger I ate as a young woman.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Do you eat very well today?

Diane Keaton: My relationship to food is dispassionate. I have not touched meat for 25 years and have not even eaten fish for five years. No idea how it started. I just do not like to eat animals anymore. I consciously eat, but I can also enjoy a red wine. I want to stay healthy and active.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: And slender?

Diane Keaton: Oh well. Take a look at the Hollywood figures of today. I would not have been able to compete as a 20-year-old.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: Do you know Spanx, the glamor of the stars? Everyone is wearing it now, right?

Diane Keaton: Believe me, there are no bodices on the red carpet. And I do not need it myself. I have not worn any evening dresses for a long time. You have never confessed to me. When a stylist once told me that my shoulders were too narrow for a strapless dress, the dream was over. Well, so much for my self-confidence.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: But you're over there by now!

Diane Keaton: I would like to say that I stand above it. But I do not do it.I'm not a poster boy for dignified aging.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: But?

Diane Keaton: As I said, I never thought I was pretty. To be beautiful is nothing else than the promise of perfection. Perfection means standstill. I'm craving new ideas and experiences, and yet sometimes I could only scream: O God! How will I go through this and maintain a minimum of authenticity? And then I think again: who wants to judge?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: You have adopted two children at over 50 years. Why so late?

Diane Keaton: It was only then that I was mature enough for children. Of course, that could be interpreted as pure egoism. I think my kids have kept me from becoming too selfish.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: What is the biggest challenge for you as a mother?

Diane Keaton: Letting go. My daughter Dex is now 17, my son Duke Eleven. An exciting and exhausting age. I love my children idolatrously and promise to release them from the stranglehold before it's too late.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: And then?

Diane Keaton: I can occupy myself. I have just released my second architectural illustrated book. And I'm working on an essay collection about beauty.

With Woody Allen

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: The theme will not let you go.

Diane Keaton: Yes. But I'm concerned with the usual standards of beauty. Beauty has so many facets. For me it can also mean a song by Frank Ocean. Do you know him?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: The Hip Hop Singer?

Diane Keaton: Exactly. When I heard his song "4 Tears" for the first time, I was surprised that it touched me so much. Then I understood that it reminded me of a long forgotten time in my life.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN: That sounds sentimental.

Diane Keaton: Is not that the right of the elders? No, I really do not want to go back It's nice not to be obsessed anymore. From a man, from a career. I am practicing to enjoy the moment. Every morning, when I walk to the cliffs in front of my house and look at the Pacific Ocean, I exhort myself to think of nothing else. Just to see the sky and the sea and not to think about who I might have to call urgently and that I should actually do some sports today. Just let go for ten minutes. That's what we all strive for. But it's still terribly difficult. Can you?

biography

Diane Keaton was born on January 5, 1946 in Los Angeles. Her father was a civil engineer, her mother a housewife. She was the eldest of four children. At 19 she went to drama school in New York. Her first Broadway success, she landed in the musical "Hair".

The breakthrough came in 1970, when she starred in Woody Allen's play "Take it again, Sam" the female lead. Other milestones and men: Woody Allen's "Annie Hall", with which she became a style icon in 1977 and won an Oscar. "The godfather" in which she played the wife of Michael Corleone and in fact fell in love with Al Pacino.

In 1979, Warren Beatty fell in love with her. Later, the two main characters in the social drama "Reds", Keaton got for 1982, the second Oscar nomination. Highlights of the past years were "The First Wives Club" and "Something's Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson. Keaton has published several books on art and architecture, as well as a documentary on otherworldly ideas. She lives in Pacific Palisades with her two adopted children.