The 1960s actor Diane Keaton called “a hero to all of us”
If an actor is lucky enough, they’ll find themselves working with one of their favourite co-stars again, even if it takes a while for that opportunity to come back around.
For Diane Keaton, it was the rare chance to appear in a rom-com centred around middle age, something that has always been rather absent from the mainstream, that allowed her to reunite with a Hollywood legend with whom she’d shared the screen two decades prior. In fact, she even called him ‘a hero’, and not just because of his legacy in the industry as a proper cinematic heavyweight.
The Annie Hall star always had a knack for comedy, so it was a no-brainer decision when she was offered the part of a 50-something-year-old divorcée in Something’s Gotta Give by Nancy Meyers. It wasn’t an offer she could refuse, especially when she discovered that she would be appearing opposite Jack Nicholson.
The pair had crossed paths back in the ‘80s when they both starred in Warren Beatty’s Reds, which starred Keaton as political activist and journalist Louise Bryant, while Nicholson portrayed playwright Eugene O’Neill. Despite the success of the film, they didn’t keep in contact, and in those years, Nicholson’s star power only continued to increase, with roles in the likes of Terms of Endearment, A Few Good Men, Batman, and As Good As It Gets.
“I mean, I hadn’t seen Jack, besides passing him like twice in 25 years. So I didn’t know what he would be like. Because in that span of time, you know, Jack became larger than legendary,” Keaton told Venice Magazine, “He became a national treasure, which has not exactly happened to me. You know, I would see him on television peripherally at a Lakers game or read about him on the cover of Time Magazine or see him at an awards show. I didn’t know who he was.”
Despite the fact that they hadn’t kept in contact, she still remembered her experience of working with him on Reds with great fondness. In particular, she praised him for keeping the atmosphere from crumbling as Beatty struggled with the weight of acting in and directing the film.
“Jack came in, as [Beatty’s] best friend, and gave him a tremendous amount of support, and relief, and added humour on the set. Jack was like a hero; he was a hero to all of us, in a way. I only had a few scenes with him, but they were some of the most enjoyable scenes I did on Reds, because they were free of the burden of the responsibility of this movie, something that was being carried about on Warren’s back,” Keaton admitted.
Of course, he was necessary to the movie as one of the leading stars, but clearly, he was so familiar with the industry (he’d started out back in the ’60s as a writer as well as an actor) that he knew exactly what was needed to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.
Keaton said, “He would come in and be fabulous, like he is, and help everybody and leave. And I felt at the time that he was the most generous actor I’d ever been with onscreen, by far.”
