The Oscar nomination for Unfaithful powered Diane Lane to the A-List. Now, with Under the Tuscan Sun in theaters and a thriving offscreen relationship with Josh Brolin, Lane is finally enjoying a hard-won truce with fame.
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WHEN HOLLYWOOD HONORED DIANE LANE WITH AN OSCAR NOMINATION for her blistering portrayal of a sexually unmoored wife in Unfaithful, it was more than a salute to a fearless performance. It was also a tribute to three decades spent as one of the town's most gifted but underrated and under-worked natural wonders. Following her acclaimed movie debut at age 14 in 1979's A Little Romance, Lane never became the star she should have become by almost any logic. She appeared in every kind of film, from The Outsiders to Streets of Fire to The Cotton Club to Judge Dredd, Jack and Murder at 1600. She was always worth watching, but even the promising movies failed to deliver for her. On the occasions when both she and the film she starred in were exceptional, as with 1999's A Walk on the Moon, hardly anybody came. Yes, she appeared in The Perfect Storm, a bona fide hit, but you couldn't call that her movie.
Lane's personal victory at age 37 in Unfaithful is a faith-restoring kick, proof that her peers were paying attention all along. She will soon be unveiled as the heart and soul of Under the Tuscan Sun, a movie version of Frances Mayes's sun-dappled bestselling memoir about a woman who changes her life by restoring an Italian villa. On a more personal note, for the first time since divorcing Christopher Lambert in 1994, she has a very significant other in fiance/actor Josh Brolin. But Lane is way too seasoned and circumspect to get carried away with self-importance. Wearing a beautifully worn-in black leather jacket and simple vintage blouse as we talk over lunch at L.A. Farm, an Industry-friendly restaurant near where she's working on final looping for Under the Tuscan Sun, she combines the glossy good looks of a John O'Hara heroine with the thorny resilience of an Edna Ferber pioneer and the wary friendliness of someone who has recently felt the warmth of validation but will never count on it from others.
STEPHEN REBELLO: It's been a pretty head-spinning time for you lately. How are you holding up?
DIANE LANE: I'm good. I remember my father saying to me, when I was really young, something that was quite searing. He was kind of a cruel genius at times, and he said, "Oh, don't be so humble, Diane. You're not so great." I thought at the time, Goddamn it, I'm fucked no matter what I do or say. But I think now how good it was that he said that, because at least he was watching my back.
Q: I was sorry to hear that your father died last year.
A: I had two films [Hardball and The Glass House] coming out on the weekend of September 11, and that event kind of shifted the axis of the earth and my priorities, too. Two weeks later, I got a call from my dad asking, "How strong are you?" And, after that, I was taking the shuttle back and forth to and from New York to be with him as much as I could. He had a four- to six-month prognosis and made it to five months. In some ways, he's even more present now. And since that time, I met Josh [Brolin]. That's a big life-changer.
Q: Being as private as you are, I was surprised when you went public with the relationship.
A: We were forced out. We had a year of blissful anonymity, but I wanted him with me at the Oscars, for the ultimate, rightest reason--which was, "Help me get through this night. Without you, I'll feel like I'm not all the way here." That's the only reason we subjected ourselves to the frothy, frolicking red-carpet action. I needed the support.
Q: You and Christopher Lambert were divorced almost 10 years ago; you waited a long time to let someone else into your life, and that of your daughter, Eleanor. I find that commendable.
A: I don't know if my own self-preservation at the cost of intimacy was such a heroic offering to my daughter. I just don't think that you can date on your kid's time, and I'm glad I didn't. So waiting was good for me. But also, I'd never dated a man who was a father.
Q: Right; he has two children from a previous marriage. Did that really make a big difference?
A: Yes. It turned out to be the critical element that allowed me to trust and let him in.
Q: How do you get along with Josh's stepmother, Barbra Streisand?
A: Years ago, I auditioned for Yentl, which she didn't even remember, but I reminded her to make sure she loses that audition tape. [Laughing] I'm a fan of hers but, frankly, I seldom get to enjoy her company because she has her own life, I have my own life. Our paths cross in a familial way that is just sweet. She's an amazing individual. I genuinely enjoy her mind, and every time we have some fleeting talk time, I'm always reminded of how interested she is in people, which is usually a quality that makes people interesting. You get into a conversation with her and it's like, What do you mean, it's time to go home?
Q: You don't have to deal with her level of fame, but how are you handling all the extra attention since Unfaithful?
A: It's still relatively new, this "status" thing. [Laughing] Before, I had "underdog" status, and that was a parameter within which I felt secure. Then the frame changed, and when you change the frame, the expectations change. The one thing that I've preached-- which was easier to preach in previous times--is not to worship at the altar.
Q: At the altar of fame and success?
A: Yes. But I do like the pay raise. Listen, I wouldn't have bet on my getting to enjoy this new view of things. I feel grateful I continually worked--a lot of people don't. I know all about peaks, valleys, plateaus, but analysis of all the different dimensions of career status? It literally divorces me from the pleasure in just being.
Q: What if you had gotten this level of attention and fame at the time of The Cotton Club?
A: I couldn't have handled it. It would have mattered too much to me then. Every voice in my ear back then was focused on that. That's why I left Hollywood for a while. I knew then and I know now that it's not what comforts my soul; it's just not what I'm going to care about when I'm in the throes of death.
Q: Having been told year after year that this or that movie would be The One, you must have developed a philosophy on how to roll with the punches.
A: I got used to swinging from vine to vine in the jungle, just hoping blindly that there would be another rope to meet my grasp. In my head I invented all these bumper stickers to comfort myself, like--you have to imagine me puffing a big cigar here--"If They Knew How to Make Hits, They'd Make More of Them." I had all kinds of snappy retorts to deal with the reality of being unable to have control over the popularity that implies success in my field--and with the inevitable resentment of being at the mercy of that popularity.
Q: It would have been hard not to be angry when lesser talents were constantly failing upward.
A: I grew comfortable with the idea that it was OK if I just enjoyed the experience of making my films. I fashioned my own reward system to be something that they couldn't take away from me. That included enjoying people I got to work with, like getting to have riotously funny conversations with Donald Sutherland before doing our crying scene in Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, or just thinking about the fact that while he was playing a cataract-ridden wild man flailing in a bed, I was in my trailer lactating. There's a blessing/curse dichotomy to the bounty of this career which can be traced by anyone at the cut-rate section of your local Blockbuster. [Laughing]
Q: What's a movie you didn't land that you really wanted?
A: I remember auditioning really hard for Jerry Maguire--not for the Renee [Zellweger] role, which didn't really speak to me, but the bitchy role Kelly Preston played. I wanted a chance to play something really freeing, like No Miss Congeniality Prize for Me Today. There were roles that won other people Oscars that I don't know if I'd have gotten even if I'd fought as hard as I could have but that I didn't fight for. And, in hindsight, looking at those films I was really glad that I listened to my intuition, because I doubt I'd have fleshed those roles out to the degree that the other actresses did. There's an appropriateness of an actor for a character--the time of life that the performer is in, his or her emotional availability. That's kind of what occurred with me on Unfaithful.
Q: Doing Unfaithful, you had to be aware that you were going for broke.
A: Not at all. I thought I would be in the one Adrian Lyne flop. [Laughing]
Q: Would you say yes to another movie as sexual as Unfaithful as your daughter gets old enough to see your work?
A: Sexuality removed far enough out of context is pornography, but compartmentalizing it is what created the porn industry. My parents treated me like I had a brain--which, in turn, caused me to have one. You can squash a person's belief in herself by not believing in her, especially a child. I have to trust her. She needs to be armed with the truth. That means seeing all of my work and stumbling across things that aren't fun and are confusing for her. I want her to feel like we have no secrets. But I don't want her to have information that is inflammatory without context.
Q: Your mother, Colleen Farrington, a singer, appeared as a Playboy centerfold in the '50s. Despite your beauty and sensuality, you have never chosen to pose in a men's magazine.
A: My joke about that is that my mother gave at the office for our family so, hey, it's like our taxes are paid. I've seen how difficult it was for her to reconcile the aftermath of that in terms of what people made of it.
Q: Have fans been more aggressive lately?
A: At the airport the other day a very kind, inoffensive young guy approached me with some pictures to sign, and for the first time in my life, it felt like I needed to say no. That was shocking to me. But I felt, well, I'm here alone. Clearly I'm off duty.
Q: Don't tell me you've never gone after anyone's autograph.
A: Ingrid Bergman's at the Venice airport. But I was 10. And I approached her with reverence. She was gracious and delightful and, clearly, I'll never recover.
Q: You said earlier you like the pay raise you've gotten. Have you treated yourself to anything luxurious, just to acknowledge that step-up?
A: My car is nine years old, never had a CD player, and it's got a little patched hole in the convertible roof. It's just not cool to drive up anywhere in it. We also have this mommymobile Volvo, which my daughter named Volvina, and the air-conditioner is going out in it. It's time to recycle the vehicles in that horrible American way. I also want to get a satellite system, where all the music is preprogrammed with no commercials.
Q: Are you a clothes-buyer?
A: I don't like spending a lot of money on them. Every once in a while, it's fun to buy one outrageous article of clothing that, for some reason, becomes like a talisman and gives you more power than your other shirts and stuff. I'll stick with things for too long. If they're not broke, don't fix it. Like my Ann Taylor leather jacket here.
Q: Do you have road rules in terms of how you dress?
A: Work with your body type. Some people wear clothes they get swallowed in. Some people wear clothes that accentuate nothing. Other people wear clothes with something in their mind, but they're kidding themselves. There are some clothes I just can't wear because I don't have the body for them. I live in this leather jacket. It works no matter what color hair I have, which changes with work.
Q: I like that it's broken in.
A: So do I. I feel that way about everything. [Laughing] There are on-duty clothes and off-duty clothes. You know when you watch footballers strap on all their gear? That's how I feel about dressing for the red carpet. Part of the social graces expected in my culture entails wearing expensive clothes. The minute I'm home, though, they're off, and I'm in my civvies.
Q: Are you a brands person?
A: I've never branded, though Kiehl's has made some products that I've used. Some of these modern perfumes smell, to me, like nuclear fallout. It's sad that the human animal's olfactory system has adapted to these petroleum distillates. When I was pregnant, I got nauseous in an elevator from one of those inorganic-smelling, big-name fragrances that women and men wear. I like scents that only exist in nature, things that nobody can really put their brand on. So, what I like is probably hippie stuff, right?
Q: What do you do to de-stress?
A: Yoga. I've been doing it for eight years. I'm not religious about it. It's like a patch job. But any yoga is better than no yoga, so I'm not a snob about where I get it.
Q: What's your idea of a great getaway?
A: Hiking in the forest. I love uphill walks. I like differentness from my everyday experience, not a fluffier pillow. I love to go camping, although I don't know if I'm really good at it. When my mom and I go, we bring so much stuff, it doesn't really count as camping. But they're unforgettable times that do more for your soul than going to the Hilton on Waikiki.
Q: How did Under the Tuscan Sun happen for you?
A: I was in the middle of this very flattering dinner where the director, Audrey Wells, was telling me I was her first choice for Under the Tuscan Sun. I had to get over my ego and decide to believe her. I remember stepping back and really listening to her vision of the screenplay and realizing in the conversation with her that I had a lot of the spirit of the character's journey in my past, in my life.
Q: Such as?
A: The fact that she's a survivor, that she's able to reinvent herself, that she's willing to thrust herself into an environment that she has no frame of reference for. And also that she leaves the outside world and turns on a place inside that had been turned off. So I was sitting in this dinner, and it was almost like hearing, "This is a gift. Just accept it." I put aside my usual analysis machine. I felt the heart of the story and wanted to be part of that. It's a gift of hope to those who are willing to be touched by it and maybe put aside their own analysis machines.
Q: In the book, Frances Mayes goes to Italy with her husband. In the movie, she's apparently a recently divorced, depressed woman who refurbishes a house and takes an Italian lover. Why do so many movie heroines only find sexual fulfillment with some exotic guy in an exotic locale?
A: Because they're written by Americans. No, I'm kidding. You mean why doesn't she find her essence in line at the grocery store [Laughing]?
Q: I mean, why can't her restoring a great house in Florence be transformative enough? Why does she have to have a sexy young Italian?
A: In our story, it is the house. You see her try the other, and it doesn't work.
Q: How are things with you and your daughter?
A: We've had our best year so far in terms of her emotional life, in terms of growth. That means challenges, but we're growing through them. A new male figure in her life is a real paradigm shift. She teaches me about the requirements of emotional honesty, about what is expected. I'm pretty good at denial, at skipping over things and saving anything dramatic for the camera. I can't do that anymore. She gives my report card, without even meaning to.
Q: Does it make you nervous that, after the Oscar nomination, people will be scrutinizing Under the Tuscan Sun more closely?
A: Here's the thing. This is not a secret, but it's not pretty. When a movie role isn't the greatest thing that ever happened to the actor's career, they usually pay you more money. When the role is something that someone would kill a family member to be in, they won't offer you the lottery ticket of salaries--because they know they can replace you. The screenplay is the irreplaceable commodity. So when you have the situation of, "We want her! We want her!" and they start offering you money that wasn't offered to you before, are you a bad person or less of an artist to let that affect your choices?
Q: That pressure has to be even tougher on women over 30.
A: I don't want to make any decisions out of fear, whether it's fear of financial security in my future or of maintaining the respect that I worked so hard to earn. I was employed because people hired me, not because my name on the poster sold tickets. I was a single working mom, and I never knew whether any job was going to be my last. So you walk through the open doors, and you pray. Sometimes you're really grateful that nobody's seen the movies you've made, and sometimes you wish that more people had.
Q: Well, you've certainly earned the downtime you're enjoying now. You've earned it all, I'd say.
A: I'm very good with downtime. And thank you for saying I earned it.
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