ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton has died at the age of 79. She was a star whose work spanned more than five decades, with roles that became fixtures of American cinema, including the title character in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall," and Kay Corleone, wife to mob boss Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" trilogy. Joining us to discuss her life and legacy is Michael Schulman, staff writer at The New Yorker. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
MICHAEL SCHULMAN: Thanks.
LIMBONG: So I want to start with Kay Corleone. She had a few other roles before appearing in this first "Godfather" film. But I want to play this clip of Keaton as Kay Corleone in 1974's "Godfather Part II."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE GODFATHER PART II")
DIANE KEATON: (As Kay Corleone) I didn't want your son, Michael. I wouldn't bring another one of your sons into this world. It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son, a son, and I had it killed because this must all end.
LIMBONG: Oof. What was it about this role that propelled Keaton into superstardom?
SCHULMAN: Well, obviously, the movie itself and its sequel were gigantic hits. She was pretty much unknown before she did the first "Godfather." You know, obviously, she's the woman in a movie about men and male familial relationships. But anyone who sees it comes away thinking about Kay, especially that last scene in the first "Godfather," when you see the men shut the door on her and her face in that moment of woundedness.
I feel like Diane Keaton was always an actress who had two things at least going on at once. One was a kind of keen intelligence, and the other was that sort of insecurity, the self-effacing quality that we all think about when we think about Diane Keaton. But they sort of went hand in hand. They were in tension with each other. And when I think of Kay trying to navigate this very violent family she's in and realizing that her husband, Michael, is becoming the evil mob boss that she never expected him to be, it's this dawning realization that her life is being destroyed, and it's heartbreaking.
LIMBONG: Yeah, yeah. I want to say, you know, like you'd mentioned, Keaton is famously associated with quirky and neurotic characters. Are there any other roles that stood out, too?
SCHULMAN: Well, of course. You know, if you want to see her in really dramatic roles, there's Woody Allen's "Interiors" and "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" from the '70s. She plays a woman who's dying of leukemia in "Marvin's Room" from the early '90s, opposite Meryl Streep. But I mean, I think right from the beginning of her career, she had this dual quality of being able to play dramaticals and an absolutely individual peerless kind of comedy star.
LIMBONG: Yeah. I want to talk about her fits, both onscreen and off. She was kind of known for these, like, layered looks that include bowler hats, vests and ties. How did she manage to become such a style figure?
SCHULMAN: What's interesting is that I think the style predates the characters that had those styles. I mean, Annie Hall is really modeled on her. Her original last name was, in fact, Hall, and she changed it to Keaton, her mother's maiden name. And the character has some of her quirks, including, you know, wearing men's neckties and bowler hats and stuff. And that really took off. There's a line in "Something's Gotta Give" about how - why is she wearing turtlenecks, you know, on a 90-degree day? And - because in real life, Diane Keaton loved wearing turtleneck.
LIMBONG: (Laughter).
SCHULMAN: You know, I think that was part of why - you know, I can't be the only one who feels like this news today is really hitting in a way that a lot of celebrity deaths don't because I feel like I knew Diane Keaton, which, I assure you, I didn't. But...
LIMBONG: She made you feel that way.
SCHULMAN: You know, she's someone who we felt like we knew in part because she had these...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
SCHULMAN: ...Sort of eccentricities, and she had interests, you know? She was...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
SCHULMAN: ...Interested in how to dress. She was interested in photography. She had a book of, like, dilapidated hotel interiors. She just felt like a real person, and style was part of that.
LIMBONG: Michael Schulman, thank you for your time.
SCHULMAN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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