Ineverwantedtomarry. Mymotherhelpedme geteverythingIwanted
Annie Hall star returns to screens in romantic comedy Hampstead which sees her fall for squatter
working in the movies for almost 50 years but there are things she wishes she could have told her younger self.
She said: “I wish I had been less hesitant and more assertive, because I would have seen more and known more. But also I’m really happy with what I have.”
The Oscar-winning actress is back in cinemas this week in British comedy Hampstead, a charming romance with Irishman Brendan Gleeson.
The Braveheart star plays Donald Horner, who wins squatters’ rights to land worth millions because he’d lived there in a shed for more than 12 years.
Diane plays Emily Walters, a struggling American widow living in a flat overlooking Hampstead Heath.
From an attic window, she spots Horner being attacked in his shack and goes to find him.
What ensues is a sweet and funny love story, as two people who don’t quite fit in find solace in each other.
Diane said: “What I liked about Emily was that she was stuck and lying to herself. She was kind of charming but she was lost – she needed something to jolt her out of the rut she was in. And then, boom, everything changed with a pair of binoculars.”
Oscar-winner Diane’s Annie Hall look – buttoned up shirts and scarves, and trouser suits with top-pocket handkerchiefs – can be seen in the film but as the star puts it, it’s a “little more conservative”.
And for the interview she’s dressed suitably Annie in white shirt, black jacket cinched in with a belt and wide-leg trousers. So how much of the famous character was really Diane?
She said: “I think it was a combination. Woody wrote it and he’s been able to write female parts better than anybody. He’s a great observer of women. It’s amazing how he captures their voices.”
Five years earlier, at 26, she was chosen by director Francis Ford Coppola to play Michael Corleone’s long-suffering wife Kay in The Godfather, a role Diane has said “had no voice”.
She explained: “I think that was an interesting reason Francis might have cast me, because she hadn’t developed her voice.
“She didn’t know, she was just in love with this man. He didn’t know in the beginning and it just slowly evolved.
“That was one of the interesting parts of The Godfather, that he changed so much, with time and power. Power corrupts absolutely.”
In April, the director and cast members, including Pacino, who played Michael, Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, gathered to mark the film’s 45th anniversary.
Diane said: “It was touching and sad and beautiful.
“I don’t think I’d seen Al Pacino in 20 years.
“It was heartbreaking on some level because many people are gone, but at the same time, I was so proud just to be a small part of that movie, because the movie is still a piece of genius.” ● Hampstead opens in cinemas on Friday.