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CNN Live Today

Interview With Actress Diane Lane

Aired May 24, 2002 - 11:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us live from Los Angeles, actress Diane Lane who stars opposite Richard Gere in "Unfaithful." Thanks for joining us this morning.

DIANE LANE, ACTRESS: Good morning, Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: This was such an intense movie. It was such intense sex scenes. I mean, I saw the movie, and when you were on the train and in character, you were fantasizing about the sexual encounter with the other man, and the emotions that went across your face were incredible. How do you do that?

LANE: I don't know, Carol. I'm always awkward to discuss, you know, actors' methods, but I will say that that is how I freak out. So I just offered it up to the director.

COSTELLO: Well, it was very effective, let me tell you.

LANE: I'm glad.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the sexual attraction in this movie. It seemed almost mannish to me, not the typical Hollywood fare, because your character is just sexually attracted to this other man. There is seemingly no emotion involved. Is this a more modern way that Hollywood is portraying a woman's sexuality?

LANE: Oh, I think I would have to beg to differ with you, Carol, because I think that women are more emotionally attached to their libido, and for a woman to risk so much and having an affair, it's not as easy for her to compartmentalize and separate her sexuality from her emotional life like it would be for the traditional philanderer, which conjures up a man in your mind, not a woman. You know, and I think a man -- it's easier for him to separate church and state, you know.

COSTELLO: Yeah. Well, we were having a big debate about tat very subject in the newsroom. In fact, me and Leon, we were having that debate.

LANE: That's what this movie does.

COSTELLO: Yeah. And we found -- well, actually Leon found it kind of unrealistic that a happily, seemingly happily married woman with a child would take such a chance with this guy that she met on the streets of New York.

LANE: Well, I mean, that's the opening of the movie when you have -- you see the wind storm, the opening credits, and you just never know what's going to knock your bicycle over. I think it takes a lot of vigilance to stay true to your convictions and yourself first. I mean, you only keep the promises that you make to yourself. And you have to remember on a daily basis why you made them.

And for a woman to take this risk, it's -- I think there is more peril to the family than when a man does it. It's true.

COSTELLO: I found something interesting in my press kit, actually, from the director Adrian Lyne, who said: "Unfaithful is a story in which it may actually be easier for the audience to forgive a murderer than an adulteress." Is that how you saw it?

LANE: It was interesting to me how many times my character had to apologize. You know, I mean, the territory of this is so traditionally male. I mean, nobody asks in "Fatal Attraction," when Michael Douglas cheated on Ann Archer, nobody was interviewing Michael Douglas saying, how could you do that? She was so lovely and dotting and waiting for you at home with her bustier on. And to cheat on Richard Gere, I agree, it's a big leap to justify.

COSTELLO: Is it just a male-female thing? Because you're right, Michael Douglas was not the villain in "Fatal Attraction." And in some ways, you could look at the movie "Unfaithful" and say that the woman cheating on her husband caused the whole ruckus.

LANE: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, dishonesty and the betrayal of that is more hurtful, I think, than a lot of other things. I mean, it takes a lot of vigilance to keep your vows. And I don't just mean in practice, I mean in terms of devotion to your relationship. And you know, people will be talking, because it's across the gender line, like you guys were saying.

COSTELLO: Oh, yeah, it caused a big debate here, and it was a great movie. And your performance was just spectacular.

LANE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Diane Lane, live from Los Angeles.

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