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Film-maker Nancy Meyers has paid tribute to the late Diane Keaton, her “friend of almost 40 years” and collaborator on celebrated comedies Something’s Gotta Give, Baby Boom and Father of the Bride.
On Monday, Meyers wrote on Instagram that she’d had a difficult 48 hours since Keaton’s death was announced on Saturday, but “seeing all of your tributes to Diane has been a comfort.”
“As a movie lover, I’m with you all – we have lost a giant,” she wrote. “A brilliant actress who time and again laid herself bare to tell our stories. As a woman, I lost a friend of almost 40 years – at times over those years, she felt like a sister because we shared so many truly memorable experiences. As a filmmaker, I’ve lost a connection with an actress that one can only dream of.
“We all search for that someone who really gets us, right? Well, with Diane, I believe we mutually had that. I always felt she really got me so writing for her made me better because I felt so secure in her hands. I knew how vulnerable she could be. And I knew how hilarious she could be, not only with dialogue (which she said word for word as written but managed to always make it sound improvised) but she could be funny sitting at a dinner table or just walking into a room.”
Meyers also credited Keaton’s work with other directors including Woody Allen and Warren Beatty.
“Diane did exactly the same for them because that is what she does,” she wrote. “She goes deep. And I know those who have worked with her know what I know … she made everything better. Every set up, every day, in every movie, I watched her give it her all.”
Keaton “was fearless, she was like nobody ever, she was born to be a movie star, her laugh could make your day and for me, knowing her and working with her – changed my life,” Meyers wrote. “Thank you Di. I’ll miss you forever.”
Keaton died Saturday at the age of 79. She won the best actress Oscar for her role as the titular character in Annie Hall and was nominated for the award three more times, including for her performance in Meyers’ 2003 film, Something’s Gotta Give, in which she starred as a playwright who is torn between dating a younger doctor played by Keanu Reeves and a wealthy womaniser played by Jack Nicholson.
Meyers also cowrote the screenplays for Baby Boom and Father of the Bride, which starred Keaton and were directed by Charles Shyer.
Allen, Keaton’s former partner and costar in Annie Hall, also paid tribute to the actor on Monday in an essay published by the Free Press, writing that she was “unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again”.
