LOS ANGELES • Diane Keaton claims to be one of the fortunate ones.
As the screen legend reflects on age, marriage and nearly half a century of working in Hollywood, she says she has never felt sexually harassed.
“Never. Maybe I just wasn’t harassment material,” jokes Keaton, who has 68 screen credits since her 1970 debut in the comedy, Lovers And Other Strangers.
“In the beginning… when I had successful films, I would have offers. But you know, I’ve been fortunate,” the 72-year-old star says.
Keaton’s big screen appearances include The Godfather (1972) and its sequels in 1974 and 1990, Reds (1981) with Warren Beatty, two Father Of The Bride movies in 1991 and 1995 with Steve Martin and Something’s Gotta Give (2003) with Jack Nicholson, for which she won a Golden Globe.
The actress truly made her mark co-starring in eight Woody Allen movies, from Play It Again, Sam (1972) and Annie Hall (1977) to Radio Days (1987) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).
She won her Best Actress Oscar for starring in Annie Hall with Allen and was nominated a further three times.
Keaton and Allen were lovers for a time and, when they broke up, they remained friends and work partners.
As the Hollywood sexual harassment scandals detonated in late 2017, cascading from producer Harvey Weinstein to heavyweight actors such as Kevin Spacey, old accusations of child sex abuse against Allen by his adoptive daughter Dylan resurfaced.
“Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him,” Keaton tweeted in January last year.
For all her confidence and bravado, Keaton preferred simply not to talk about the controversial actor and director – and did not answer a question about whether she would work with him again.
Keaton’s last two movies are about ageing women: Book Club (2018), with its message that love has no age limit, and Poms, set to open tomorrow in the United States and Canada.
Poms is the story of Martha, a terminally ill woman who moves to a retirement community to die, but winds up forming a cheerleading squad made up of female senior citizens.
As for ageing, Keaton says life gets easier.
“I think so because what have you got to lose? It’s like it’s the truth. That’s what it is. You face it, we talk about it,” she says.
Keaton is less certain about spending her final years in a retirement home, but she definitely would not be a cheerleader like Martha in Poms.
“I was never a dancer… and cheerleading is basically dancing,” she says.
She auditioned for a school cheerleading squad when she was 14, but did not make the cut.
“My heart was in performing on stage,” she says.
Keaton is familiar with the environment, having volunteered in her 30s at a Jewish retirement home. She has a brother – the subject of a book she has just finished – at an assisted living facility.
“So, I know about them. I’ve been around,” she says.
Keaton, who enjoys photography when she is not acting, is in no rush to retire.
“I don’t think of it,” she says.
She adds: “If the Hollywood work offers dry up, I have a lot of hobbies which are time-consuming that I love. I’ll address those and they will be my work.
“I have no intention of stopping any kind of work whatsoever.”
Keaton, who has had long romances with screen legends such as Al Pacino, Beatty and Allen, has two adopted children, but never married.
“I wonder if I’m the only single woman of my age who’s been in film who hasn’t got married, so I might be a freak,” she says.
“Most people in the movies get married at some point, then they divorce.
“But I’ve never even got married. I am a failure,” she jokes.
Does she regret it?
“I don’t think about it a lot, but I’m aware of the fact that I’m unusual in that regard and, maybe, I did miss out on something – but then, nobody can have everything, right?”
“I’m not unhappy,” she says.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
