Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty by Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton. Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty. New York: Random House, 2014.

The author admires “women who aren’t afraid to push the envelope” and those who “do what you aren’t supposed to do.”

Woody Allen encouraged her to continue auditioning after she lost at many auditions. She began doubting her own looks. Allen, an actor-writer-friend, told her she was funny and “funny is pretty.” She realized funny women “make funny beautiful.”

Keaton observes there is “no beauty without pain.” For example, Keaton observes that “Marilyn Monroe’s insecurity explains her continuing appeal.”

In shooting a movie “The Little Girl”, Keaton evoked emotions prior to filming an emotional scene by looking at a photograph of her then boyfriend to whom she wasn’t then speaking, Warren Beatty. By kissing the photograph, a flood of emotions returned.

Ann Miller, Keaton noted, had a nose job that did not look well. Ann Miller hid the botched nose job by wearing a fake nose. Once while dancing while filming “Kiss Me Kate” her fake nose flew off.

Many actors worry about their looks. Gary Cooper had a face lift.

Keaton observes “low comedy is looked down upon because it’s targeting towards people who want to feel better by laughing at someone else’s misery.” Yet she notices it makes great comedic experts to excel at slapstick and pratfalls, including Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Matin Short, Adam Sandler, and Melissa McCarthy.

Keaton argues “comedy is not a scene. It’s an art. As you try to analyze it, the funniness disappears.”

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