Why ‘The Godfather’ was “strangest thing to ever happen” to Diane Keaton
Success can be surprising and unexpected for even the most accomplished of actors, whether it be the people who make comebacks later on in their career or star in a role that completely changes their Hollywood trajectory after years away from the spotlight. From Brendan Fraser’s award-winning performance in The Whale to Demi Moore‘s renaissance after her explosive role in The Substance, there are many projects that find their way to people who didn’t see it coming, reacting with complete surprise at their sudden skyrocketing towards the top.
While this could be an out-of-the-blue role or working with a director who goes against your typical style, Diane Keaton found herself thrown by the experience of starring in a genre that she had never worked in before, collaborating with one of the greatest directors of all time for an adventure into a story world she was less familiar with.
Keaton is an icon of her generation, rising to global fame through her work with Woody Allen and her infamous performance in Annie Hall. Her impact on popular culture as a whole was infectious, with people adopting her signature style and becoming inspired by her unique look. The actor had been working on the stage for several years, starting as a teenager in New York and first appearing in Hair on Broadway.
After this, she began working with Allen on Play It Again, Sam, with her next role being the one to change her career forever. There are few films that continue to spark the same reaction of reverence and respect after so many years, with Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film The Godfather being one of them. The story of the Corleone family is now ingrained in Hollywood history and one of the most crucial productions from the ‘New Hollywood’ movement, with stories about Coppola’s grand vision and Marlon Brando’s acting methods becoming regularly discussed in relation to the extreme changes that were sweeping through the film industry.
Everything was changing, something that Keaton soon became aware of after the film was met with colossal success and heralded as a masterpiece. The actor revealed her surprise at her involvement in the film after having a polar opposite background in a totally different genre of storytelling.
At the time she auditioned for the role of Kay Adams Corleone, the wife of Michael Corleone, Keaton had not read the book that the film was based on and knew little about the story. She said, “I didn’t even know what The Godfather was. Someone said to me, ‘You’ve got to go and audition for things,’ so I auditioned for the film, and I got the role of Kay Corleone.”
Later, she opened up about the experience of being cast, concluding, “That was the strangest thing to ever happen to me in my whole life”, with the actor only having a comedic background and seemingly no dramatic experience that would point towards her playing this character. But after the film was released, her career was forever changed, and while it might have been unexpected, it was the best surprise she could have asked for.
