160 InSTYLE AUGUST 2019
Diane Keaton: What a Doll
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you’d see Cary Grant or one of those guys
wear. It made me think, “Buy hats.” I
thought, “God, that would be good. I could
do that.” Which is the story of my life. “I
could copy this. I could copy that.”
But then you make it your own. What is
your general fashion ethos? You’ve writ-
ten that your outfits are “an impenetrable
fortress.” I was watching Karl Lagerfeld, and
now he’s no longer with us, which is a shame,
but, gradually, what happened with time was
he looked just like this [points to the turtle-
neck she is wearing with elongated sleeves
covering her hands]. He wore gloves. But I’m
the master of the hats.
Where do you shop? I like Egg in London.
Comme des Garçons. Noodle Stories in L.A.
Dover Street Market. They carry all these
unusual designers doing all kinds of things. I
like Thom Browne, and I still love Ralph Lau-
ren suits. They ’re so well structured. And
[Maison] Margiela.
How do you feel about online shopping?
My daughter, Dexter, is an online shopper. I
think she’s crazy. Part of the great joy is just
being in the stores. It’s sad what’s happen-
ing to them. They ’re just closing, and people
are doing exactly what you’re telling me
[ buying online]. It’s like, “Stop! How can
you do that? You don’t know what it’s going
to look like on you!”
You could try it on at home and then re-
turn it. Oh, you’re insane. That’s crazy.
They make it so easy for you. But you miss
out on seeing it live!
I understand what you’re saying, but time
is a real consideration. Time. Time. There’s
never enough time! But there’s always enough
time to do something you love. I love it.
So, this is the Badass Issue. Who do you
think is a badass? Bette Midler is balls to
the floor. I think Lena Dunham is a badass
woman. She’s brilliant. Sarah Silverman.
And Gayle King is super badass.
What’s the most badass thing you’ve ever
done? I don’t really want to talk about it too
much, but I got naked in a couple of movies,
and that was something that just about did my
father in. One was Looking for Mr. Goodbar
[1977], and then the other was Nancy Mey-
ers’s movie [Something’s Gotta Give, 2003]
where I just go [naked] ... and then I run away.
When do you feel the most powerful and
confident? It’s hard to say that I ever feel
powerful or confident. Those two words are
not really in my purview. I enjoy being en-
gaged by imagery. That’s important for me. I
have all these three-ring binders, in catego-
ries, full of images that I’ve cut out of maga-
zines. I’m thinking about doing another
book where I combine everything that I’m
interested in.
Do you consider yourself a badass? I
would call myself somebody who avoids more
than anything else. I’ve got that 8-foot wall
[points toward the house’s gate]. It makes mefeel protected, you know? Safe. I’m fearless
about what I like. In other words, I’ll take it
wherever I want to go. I’ve had a lot of inde-
pendence, and nobody ’s telling me what to do.
I had a mother who encouraged that and
helped me achieve the things I wanted to
achieve. I’ve followed the paths I’ve wanted to
follow. I like redoing houses, I like architec-
ture, I like visuals, I like fashion, I like all of it.
What are you most proud of in your ca-
reer, acting-wise? I’ve done a lot of things. I
think that I was better in some things and not
so great in others. And some of the movies
were better. I mean, obviously, I owe it all to
Annie Hall. That was the beginning. I did sev-
eral movies with him [Woody Allen], and
then a lot of other movies, like Looking for Mr.
Goodbar, which my dad hated. That’s the one
we were talking about where I revealed part
of my body. Big deal!
Didn’t you also get naked in Hair [1968]
on Broadway? Oh, I did Hair, but I didn’t
have to get naked. In the beginning only, like,
three people did. To me, it just seemed ex-
tremely uncomfortable. Standing there na-
ked? I just remember lying on the floor and
looking up, and Ronnie Dyson’s [naked] body
was right there. Oh, OK.
How do you process bad movie reviews? I
don’t look. I know when they ’re a bomb, and
I go, “OK, so that’s not good. And I’m not go-
ing to look at it.”
Do you know when you’re making it? Yo u
don’t know. It was a surprise to me that Book
Club [2018] was a big hit. I didn’t expect it. I
just thought, “Oh, well, I got a job—that’s
good.” Blah, blah, on and on. So you don’t
know. You may have an opinion about it
while you’re making it, but frequently you’re
wrong. [laughs] That’s true with a lot of
things.
I feel like Poms got an unfair shake. They
didn’t like Poms.
I thought it was very sweet. It is sweet.
But, no, they didn’t like it. It’s OK.
Do you just move on? On to the next?
What else am I going to do? And also, I’ve
had so many nexts. How many more nexts
am I going to get?
Is there a role you haven’t played that you
still want to do? Oh, no. Oh god, I’m not
thinking, “Gee, I need to play a role.” I’m not a
real actress. OK, wait, I have to tell you this.
So, Jessica Lange. I was in New York, and I
saw her in The Glass Menagerie [i n 2005].
And it was a matinee, which means she had to
do another show after that. She was just to-
tally emotional, totally brilliant. I went back-
stage because I made that movie Crimes of
the Heart [1986] with her. I looked at her, and
she had been crying. I said, “How can you do
this over and over in front of people?” She
looked at me, “I love it so much.” I said,
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Count me out.
But you’ve done theater. After Hair I did
Play It Again, Sam [ by Woody Allen, 1969, for
which Keaton received a Tony nomination].
We were on for over a year. I remember thatover the course of time, I began to hate it.
Woody would make jokes while we were
working on set, and, of course, I would crack
up. [We were] kind of nonprofessional, kind
of jerks. The truth is, I don’t want to do it live
night after night. What I like about the mov-
ies is that you get on there and you get to do
one thing over and over. I like fragments.
How do you live with being called an
icon? Well, this word “icon” is new to me. No
one has ever called me an icon. I guess with
time you call people an icon because they ’ve
been around for a long time. That’s an icon
for you.
You have this incredible body of work
that people admire. Really? I’m not aware
of that.
You’re so good at deflecting and pivoting
to the next thing! Do you consider your-
self ambitious? Yeah, I am. I’m totally am-
bitious. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here
in my brick house, you know what I mean?
Of course. I was so from a very early age. I re-
member exactly why: I’m 8, and my mother,
who was ambitious but didn’t get to realize
her dreams ...
No time with four kids, right? Exactly. My
mother ran for Mrs. America [a pageant for
married homemakers, in 1955]. I’m sitting
there watching her on the stage, and I re-
member I thought, “I want to do that.” And
that’s it. Once you have that, it guides your
life. I was ambitious about wanting to sing,
wanting to be paid attention to. It came
straight from that. My mother was really an
artist herself, and she could’ve had an
amazing career. She just wasn’t born at the
right time.
What is a typical day in your life like? I get
up really early. I feed the dog, and I get the
food for the horses [ her neighbor’s across the
street]. I feed them and I come back. Then I
hit it over there [points to her office]. I always
have work to do, and I love it. So the morning
is my favorite time because it sets the tone for
what the day ’s going to be and what I’m going
to do and how I’m going to manage.
What about dating? Do guys ask you out?
Never. All right? [laughs] Let’s just get that
straight. That one’s important. I haven’t been
on a date in, I would say, 35 years. No dates.
Do you want to be on a date? I have a lot of
male friends. I have a lot of friends, but no
dates. No mwah-mwah.
No? You always joke about it when you’re
on Ellen. Oh, it’s all fun on Ellen. What am I
doing? I’m just being a jerk. Better still was
Jimmy Kimmel. That’s the fun one. He’ll let
me do that to him. You can do whatever you
want. “This is how I’m going to kiss you. I’m
going to teach you a lesson.” So much fun.
You seem to be enjoying Instagram these
days. I do. It’s just fun for me to go into my
files. I get to share things in that way—harm-
less kind of stuff. There was something that
was going on with me when I did that hat
video, and I just thought, “Oh, what the hell?”
Because you’re always trying to think of ideas.