Diane Keaton on hats, finding her true self, and not acting her age in ‘Mack & Rita’
Diane Keaton starts to laugh when it’s suggested that one of the very stylish hats she wears in her new movie “Mack & Rita” looks an awful lot like one displayed in a video tour of her hat collection two years ago.
“Oh, that’s terrible!” Keaton says, laughing harder, of the video she made for Instagram while stuck at home in the pandemic.
So, had she given the film’s producers a headpiece from her collection?
“Yes, of course, I’d loan them out,” she jokes. “Get a little cash. It didn’t hurt.
“No, no, I didn’t.”
It’s a perfect Keaton moment, funny and charming in equal measure, and the same can be said for “Mack & Rita,” in which Keaton gets to play Rita, the inner 70-year-old of 30-year-old influencer Mack, who comes to life in the movie magic seen in movies such as “Big” or “Freaky Friday.”
Mack (Elizabeth Lail) is in Palm Springs for a bachelorette weekend for best friend Carla (Taylour Paige), and though she loves Carla dearly she’d much rather just get out of her uncomfortable stilettos and have a nice little rest.
When she spies a tent in a parking lot offer past-life regressions she takes her chance, lying down in the fake shaman’s busted tanning bed as he guides her to express her deepest desires.
Which turn out to be a 70-year-old woman. Which means — you saw this coming, yeah? — that when the tanning bed opens out steps Diane Keaton, a 70-year-old version of Mack, who until she can figure out how to reverse the swap, pretends to be Mack’s visiting Aunt Rita.
“It’s unusual,” Keaton says of her attraction to the screenplay and the role. “These characters were all wonderful, and I liked this very much.”
As Aunt Rita takes over Mack’s social media accounts, she stumbles onto even greater success as an influencer after an attempt to cover for Mack at the opening of a Pilates studio first goes off the rails, and then goes viral.
“That’s the kind of thing that I love,” Keaton says of the physical comedy involved in what’s more or a less her losing battle with the Pilates machine. “Just being an idiot, falling over.
“You know, I liked playing all of that,” she says. “I would like to have a movie where I get to do more of that. Just being a mess, falling into sandpits, and never know where you’re going, and being wrong.
“I’d love that. Those little bits were fun for me. Really fun.”
‘The No. 1 draw’
The screenplay for “Mack & Rita” enchanted director Katie Aselton when she read it but she admits that wasn’t the top reason she signed onto the project.
“If I’m completely honest I would have to say the No. 1 draw was Diane Keaton, who was already attached to star and produce,” says Aselton, who as an actress has starred in both independent films, often with her husband Mark Duplass and brother-in-law Jay Duplass, and TV series such as “The League” and “Legion.”
“That was beyond a dream come true,” she says. “And then beyond that, honestly, the story, the message, the heart of this movie really resonated with me.
“As a woman on my own journey to self-love and self-acceptance it felt like a real honest look wrapped up in a big body-switching comedy, and I had never done anything like that before. It felt like a real swing that I was ready to take.”
Aselton had written each of the feature films she’d directed before taking on “Rita & Mack.” When the pandemic turned early scenarios upside down, she ended up collaborating with screenwriters Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh on rewrites in 2020.
“When COVID hit, we had to completely reimagine the movie all over again, in scope and size, and scale it way, way down,” she says. “So I did feel like even though I didn’t write it, I definitely had my hands all over it.”
Plans to film Rita at Coachella, where all good influencers go, went out the window, depriving viewers of seeing Keaton at large among the youthful throngs.
“But now you get to see her on mushrooms, and you wouldn’t have gotten to see her on mushrooms had there not been COVID,” Aselton says of a new scene where Rita investigates ‘shrooms as a possible way to turn back into Mack. “You win some, you lose some.”
Diane at 30
Mack is 30 when she experiences her existential crisis. For Keaton, who turned 30 in 1976, it was the age at which she filmed her Oscar-winning role in the title role of “Annie Hall.”
“I would say I was anxious, a little anxious about life,” she says of her 30th year, which came after well-regarded roles in the first two films in “The Godfather” saga, but before “Annie Hall” sent her career skyrocketing. “Of course, I was very, you know, happy to have that opportunity to be in that role, which I really enjoyed.
“But before that, you know, it was just trying to get moving and being,” Keaton says. “You know, I’d been in ‘Hair’ (the 1968 original Broadway production) and all those things.
“And finally, (‘Annie Hall’) happened, and that was so extraordinarily wonderful for me,” she says. “I loved it. That movie was great.”
Aselton sees “Mack & Rita” as a movie about figuring out who you are, and being true to oneself. Keaton says for her that’s been a goal at which she’s been more or less successful at different points of her life.
“I think it came in and out in certain phases,” she says. “I don’t think it was always consistent, you know? So sometimes it was like, ‘Oh, no, I can’t,’ or ‘Yes, and I’ll apply myself better and be more, you know, in tune with what’s needed.
“It’s true for most of us, though,” Keaton says. “It isn’t always just like this wonderful path and it all went smoothly, just great.”
After graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1964, Keaton soon headed to New York City to study acting as part of her quest to be her truest self, she says.
“You go to New York, and you go to acting school, and then you have all this overwhelming amount of responsibilities that you kind of never thought it would be like that,” she says. “And you don’t know everything and you have to get the bus and try to find a place to live, an apartment.
“All those things, though, come together to give you the responsibility of handling your life in some form or another,” Keaton says. “And of course acting was just always my favorite.”
As a student of acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan, she learned early on that finding yourself is a journey.
“I remember working and Sandy Meisner, he would come up to me once in awhile when I was doing a scene with somebody,” Keaton says. “And he’d say, ‘You know, Diane, someday you’re going to be OK. But in the meantime, no.’”
‘Quintessentially Keaton’
Keaton is aware that the younger actors on the set looked up to her for all the acclaimed work she’s done in her career.
“Yeah, the elder stateswoman or whatever you want to call it,” she says, laughing as she adds, “Or just the elder woman.
“No, it couldn’t have been more fun for me, and they were really into their roles and were fantastic. It was smooth sailing — I know that’s not interesting, but it was smooth sailing, which is pleasant.”
Aselton says Keaton also put her at ease, a challenge given how much she adores her.
“Someone very early on was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re directing Diane Keaton,’ like dream come true,” Aselton says. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, no, I never dreamt that big. Like never even thought to dream that big.’
“And that’s not me selling myself short, that’s just being very realistic,” she says. “Diane is my idol, my icon. Like I have adored and worshipped her my entire life since I was a child.
“I watched ‘Baby Boom’ at my eighth birthday party sleeper. So it’s kind of a big deal.”
Once work began, though, all those jitters vanished.
“The great thing about Diane is that she is fun,” Aselton says. “And she loves to give people the business. Like she’s just a goof. She’ll be like, ‘Oh come on, boss, come on.’ And then she’d be, ‘Can we fire her?’
“I think I got fired a couple of times, but then I also fired her, which was a fun give and take.
“But she’s delightful,” Aselton says. “Everything that we know of Diane as audiences, that we’ve loved over the years, is exactly what we get. She’s so easy to talk to and grounded and interested.
“She’s just like quintessentially Diane Keaton, and she’s exactly, exactly what we would hope she would be.”
Diane Keaton starts to laugh when it’s suggested that one of the very stylish hats she wears in her new movie “Mack & Rita” looks an awful lot like one displayed in a video tour of her hat collection two years ago.
“Oh, that’s terrible!” Keaton says, laughing harder, of the video she made for Instagram while stuck at home in the pandemic.
So, had she given the film’s producers a headpiece from her collection?
“Yes, of course, I’d loan them out,” she jokes. “Get a little cash. It didn’t hurt.
“No, no, I didn’t.”
It’s a perfect Keaton moment, funny and charming in equal measure, and the same can be said for “Mack & Rita,” in which Keaton gets to play Rita, the inner 70-year-old of 30-year-old influencer Mack, who comes to life in the movie magic seen in movies such as “Big” or “Freaky Friday.”
Mack (Elizabeth Lail) is in Palm Springs for a bachelorette weekend for best friend Carla (Taylour Paige), and though she loves Carla dearly she’d much rather just get out of her uncomfortable stilettos and have a nice little rest.
When she spies a tent in a parking lot offer past-life regressions she takes her chance, lying down in the fake shaman’s busted tanning bed as he guides her to express her deepest desires.
Which turn out to be a 70-year-old woman. Which means — you saw this coming, yeah? — that when the tanning bed opens out steps Diane Keaton, a 70-year-old version of Mack, who until she can figure out how to reverse the swap, pretends to be Mack’s visiting Aunt Rita.
“It’s unusual,” Keaton says of her attraction to the screenplay and the role. “These characters were all wonderful, and I liked this very much.”
As Aunt Rita takes over Mack’s social media accounts, she stumbles onto even greater success as an influencer after an attempt to cover for Mack at the opening of a Pilates studio first goes off the rails, and then goes viral.
“That’s the kind of thing that I love,” Keaton says of the physical comedy involved in what’s more or a less her losing battle with the Pilates machine. “Just being an idiot, falling over.
“You know, I liked playing all of that,” she says. “I would like to have a movie where I get to do more of that. Just being a mess, falling into sandpits, and never know where you’re going, and being wrong.
“I’d love that. Those little bits were fun for me. Really fun.”
‘The No. 1 draw’
The screenplay for “Mack & Rita” enchanted director Katie Aselton when she read it but she admits that wasn’t the top reason she signed onto the project.
“If I’m completely honest I would have to say the No. 1 draw was Diane Keaton, who was already attached to star and produce,” says Aselton, who as an actress has starred in both independent films, often with her husband Mark Duplass and brother-in-law Jay Duplass, and TV series such as “The League” and “Legion.”
“That was beyond a dream come true,” she says. “And then beyond that, honestly, the story, the message, the heart of this movie really resonated with me.
“As a woman on my own journey to self-love and self-acceptance it felt like a real honest look wrapped up in a big body-switching comedy, and I had never done anything like that before. It felt like a real swing that I was ready to take.”
Aselton had written each of the feature films she’d directed before taking on “Rita & Mack.” When the pandemic turned early scenarios upside down, she ended up collaborating with screenwriters Madeline Walter and Paul Welsh on rewrites in 2020.
“When COVID hit, we had to completely reimagine the movie all over again, in scope and size, and scale it way, way down,” she says. “So I did feel like even though I didn’t write it, I definitely had my hands all over it.”
Plans to film Rita at Coachella, where all good influencers go, went out the window, depriving viewers of seeing Keaton at large among the youthful throngs.
“But now you get to see her on mushrooms, and you wouldn’t have gotten to see her on mushrooms had there not been COVID,” Aselton says of a new scene where Rita investigates ‘shrooms as a possible way to turn back into Mack. “You win some, you lose some.”
Diane at 30
Mack is 30 when she experiences her existential crisis. For Keaton, who turned 30 in 1976, it was the age at which she filmed her Oscar-winning role in the title role of “Annie Hall.”
“I would say I was anxious, a little anxious about life,” she says of her 30th year, which came after well-regarded roles in the first two films in “The Godfather” saga, but before “Annie Hall” sent her career skyrocketing. “Of course, I was very, you know, happy to have that opportunity to be in that role, which I really enjoyed.
“But before that, you know, it was just trying to get moving and being,” Keaton says. “You know, I’d been in ‘Hair’ (the 1968 original Broadway production) and all those things.
“And finally, (‘Annie Hall’) happened, and that was so extraordinarily wonderful for me,” she says. “I loved it. That movie was great.”
Aselton sees “Mack & Rita” as a movie about figuring out who you are, and being true to oneself. Keaton says for her that’s been a goal at which she’s been more or less successful at different points of her life.
“I think it came in and out in certain phases,” she says. “I don’t think it was always consistent, you know? So sometimes it was like, ‘Oh, no, I can’t,’ or ‘Yes, and I’ll apply myself better and be more, you know, in tune with what’s needed.
“It’s true for most of us, though,” Keaton says. “It isn’t always just like this wonderful path and it all went smoothly, just great.”
After graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1964, Keaton soon headed to New York City to study acting as part of her quest to be her truest self, she says.
“You go to New York, and you go to acting school, and then you have all this overwhelming amount of responsibilities that you kind of never thought it would be like that,” she says. “And you don’t know everything and you have to get the bus and try to find a place to live, an apartment.
“All those things, though, come together to give you the responsibility of handling your life in some form or another,” Keaton says. “And of course acting was just always my favorite.”
As a student of acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan, she learned early on that finding yourself is a journey.
“I remember working and Sandy Meisner, he would come up to me once in awhile when I was doing a scene with somebody,” Keaton says. “And he’d say, ‘You know, Diane, someday you’re going to be OK. But in the meantime, no.’”
‘Quintessentially Keaton’
Keaton is aware that the younger actors on the set looked up to her for all the acclaimed work she’s done in her career.
“Yeah, the elder stateswoman or whatever you want to call it,” she says, laughing as she adds, “Or just the elder woman.
“No, it couldn’t have been more fun for me, and they were really into their roles and were fantastic. It was smooth sailing — I know that’s not interesting, but it was smooth sailing, which is pleasant.”
Aselton says Keaton also put her at ease, a challenge given how much she adores her.
“Someone very early on was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re directing Diane Keaton,’ like dream come true,” Aselton says. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, no, I never dreamt that big. Like never even thought to dream that big.’
“And that’s not me selling myself short, that’s just being very realistic,” she says. “Diane is my idol, my icon. Like I have adored and worshipped her my entire life since I was a child.
“I watched ‘Baby Boom’ at my eighth birthday party sleeper. So it’s kind of a big deal.”
Once work began, though, all those jitters vanished.
“The great thing about Diane is that she is fun,” Aselton says. “And she loves to give people the business. Like she’s just a goof. She’ll be like, ‘Oh come on, boss, come on.’ And then she’d be, ‘Can we fire her?’
“I think I got fired a couple of times, but then I also fired her, which was a fun give and take.
“But she’s delightful,” Aselton says. “Everything that we know of Diane as audiences, that we’ve loved over the years, is exactly what we get. She’s so easy to talk to and grounded and interested.
“She’s just like quintessentially Diane Keaton, and she’s exactly, exactly what we would hope she would be.”
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