The curtain falls on Diane Keaton
Being the kind of film-buff who inhales films and exhales dialogue, eats popcorn for breakfast and quotes Kubrick for dessert or someone who doesn’t just watch movies but lives inside them, I always feel overwhelmingly sad when a favourite actor dies. It feels like losing a part of my own story, blurring the lines between film and reality. Diane Keaton who died on October 11 at the age of 79, was one of my favourite actors. An era has ended. A Gen Z reader will visualise a sad face and broken heart emojis right her.
Keaton made her roles iconic and unforgettable. From playing Kay Corleone, her breakthrough part in The Godfather to her memorable role of a playwright in Something’s Gotta Give (SSG), Keaton never failed to add depth, humanity, and both strength and a delicate vulnerability to every character she played. I have not been able to forget her work in Reds, Crimes of The Heart, and The First Wives Club, however, SSG remains my all-time favourite.
In SSG, the story of two older professionals who fall for each other, despite having little in common, Keaton portrayed a divorced writer named Erica Barry, opposite [my other super-favourite actor] Jack Nicholson as played Harry Sanborn, who initially dated Erica's much-younger daughter, Marin Klein (Amanda Peet). Erica, meanwhile, started dating a much younger doctor (Keanu Reeves) before forging a friendship (and eventual romance) with Nicholson. The most intriguing aspect here was that Nicholson and Keaton were 65 and 56 respectively, when they were cast in writer-director Nancy Meyers' 2003 film.
This was a time when Hollywood realised that it had neglected one of its largest audiences, the baby-boomers. Deciding to woo the large generation back, the film industry offered a number of films, one of which was SSG. To make a film portraying romance between older characters was risky business, considering the social obsession and belief that beauty, virility, love and whatever else that follows is the domain of the young only. But director, Nancy Meyers made a bold move with a rom-com using a fresh cast of actors and soundtrack, a broad spectrum of ages, identities, and intriguing themes that the young and the older generation could both relate to. The result was SSG, a delightful, soulful, and quite realistic film. By the way seeing two favourite actors cast opposite each other gives me an insane amount of giddy-happiness and this is exactly what happened when I first watched SSG, my hands trembling as I inserted the blu ray DVD in the player. Yes, very boomer indeed and only a boomer would know the joy.
I have watched Keaton portray women in bright feminist, and individualist light. It is said that she distinctly led American women into Annie Hall fashion when she did her films with Woody Allen in the ’70’s, with her androgynous style of Katherine Hepburn-slacks signifying independence, the relaxed vest, and loose tie that later became a fashion trend, while her “Annie Hall” hat remained her trademark, along with her honest laughter and generous smile.
The love story of Something’s Gotta Give was different from other movies as it tackled ageism, divorce, self-actualisation, gender differences, mortality, and age-relation limitations in relationships. I can hear it now, “Ewe!” but that response is good, because this movie reflects the “reality” of these human and gender issues. Young people might not want to hear it, but older people are human (still) and have the same relationship shenanigans as younger people.
As Keaton played Erica, the epitome of education, independence, class, graceful beauty, confidence, achievement, and self-actualisation, the film posed the question that why would she need a man. Being human, no matter that she was older, she is caught off guard and falls in love. Like they say, love comes when you least expect it. This delightful movie reminds us all that we are human, and that falling in love can catch us off guard. It comes to us when we least expect it, making us totally vulnerable, which is what makes it so crazily joyful. Nicholson and Keaton made a killer combo in the film.
But in the real world, despite these two top actors leading the film, making it was a tricky venture. Would anyone want to watch a rom-com around two middle-aged leads? But something went wrong and something went right, the doomed film made on a budget of $80 million and surprised the critics by not only earning critical acclaim, but actually raking in a $186 million profit, and getting Keaton her fourth Academy Award nomination.
In her 2011 memoir, Then Again, Keaton admitted she hadn't negotiated a back end to her contract for Something’s Gotta Give. It meant that Nicholson earned significantly more money from the film. But two years after its release, Keaton admitted she was stunned, “when a check with a lot of zeros arrived in the mail for my back-end percentage.” The actress later discovered the money had voluntarily come from Nicholson's huge percentage of the film's gross earnings. The enormous check was Nicholson’s way of thanking her for her remarkable performance in SGG.
According to the Globe, Nicholson who was a mega-star by the time he did SGG, and Keaton was not as big, they struck a close friendship in 1970s which got thicker after doing SGG. At Keaton’s death, Nicholson is reportedly stunned and upset, feels like he has lost a sister and is struggling with the fact that he never got to say farewell to her.
Diane Keaton’s passing feels like the lights dimming in a theatre you never wanted to leave. For those of us who grew up quoting her lines, imitating her confident smile, her honest eyes, or even cutting bangs like hers, her work wasn’t just performance — it was permission to be unapologetically ourselves. She made awkwardness elegant, ageing luminous, and love — even late in life — something worth risking everything for.
As the credits roll on her life, I can’t help but imagine her somewhere up there, tipping that signature hat, flashing that wide, fearless grin, and reminding us that something’s always gotta give — but the magic of cinema never does.