“She is incredible”: the 1970s actor who can do no wrong, according to Rachel Brosnahan
While James Gunn’s version of Superman was intended to make a star of David Corenswet, a number of other actors also got their chance to prove themselves on a major stage, and one of them was Rachel Brosnahan.
As the intrepid reporter Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s love interest and intellectual stimulus, she was one of the brighter parts of a film that everybody seemed to love, but that I thought was complete trash. She is set to reprise the role in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow, and hopefully, she will have many doors opened to her through the magic of being DC’s first lady.
In 2020, Brosnahan starred in the Amazon Prime-produced crime thriller, I’m Your Woman, playing Jean, a housewife in 1970s America whose husband, Bill Heck’s Eddie, is a career criminal who double-crosses his partners and disappears, forcing Jean and her adopted son to go on the run. The film, which was directed by Julia Hart, received decent reviews with Brosnahan’s performance earning particular praise.
In an interview with Forbes to help promote the film, Brosnahan spoke about some of the influences behind her portrayal of Jean, and one of them was the Michael Mann movie Thief, in which James Caan plays a safecracker. The other was another staple of crime cinema, although perhaps not in the way you might have expected.
“Diane Keaton in the ’70s, generally, and certainly in The Godfather, was such an inspiration for me as an actor long before this film came around,” she explained, “She can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. She is incredible.”
In the incredibly male-centric world of Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic, Diane Keaton’s Kay Adams stands out in more ways than one. Initially a schoolteacher, Kay’s life changes forever when she meets Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino. Initially unaware of her eventual husband’s family and their dealings, she reluctantly watches on as Michael transforms from a pacifist into the bloodthirsty head of a major crime network.
Keaton was cast in the role after Coppola saw her in Lovers and Other Strangers, and while she was initially reluctant to reprise the character in The Godfather Part II, she ended up playing Kay in all three instalments of the saga, but Brosnahan is far from the only actor to take inspiration from Keaton.
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A pioneering female star, Keaton built on the success of The Godfather by partnering with Woody Allen, most notably for her Oscar-winning turn in Annie Hall, and over a six-decade run in the film industry, she played a number of legendary characters across drama and comedy, each imbued with her signature personal charm. When she died in 2025 at the age of 79, many figures from across the acting sphere came together to pay tribute to her talents.
It may not be a particularly original answer, but sometimes clichés exist for a reason, and Diane Keaton was truly one of the greats, with the number of people who cite her as an inspiration, Rachel Brosnahan included, being testament to that fact.
