With professors on watchlists and comedians on cultural thin ice, Diane Lane‘s latest role in director Jan Komasa‘s Anniversary has never been more prescient.
Leading a star-studded ensemble as matriarch Ellen, the Oscar nominee admitted to Deadline that she’s not prepared for the discourse that’s bound to ensue from the dystopian political thriller/family drama, which is now playing in theaters.
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“Can you prepare for that? No,” she said. “But at the same time, yes, we’ve been waiting for a very long time for this film to come out, sort of. And as a cast, we were on a group text for a long time, just witnessing the things that were happening that are now history of our country that we can’t believe has been going on in the interim since we filmed.”
Lane continued, “So, it’s a group experience, democracy in our country, and I think Jan Komasa, being a European filmmaker, with his eyes on our country in terms of the experiment that it is for democracy, it’s very timely, and I appreciate it as an opportunity.”
Co-written by Komasa and Lori Rosene-Gambino, Anniversary stars Lane and Kyle Chandler as college professor Ellen and her husband Paul, whose children come together to celebrate their anniversary every year. When their son Josh (Dylan O’Brien) brings home his new girlfriend Liz (Phoebe Dynevor), Ellen recognizes her as a radical former student, who leads the controversial movement The Change.
“I didn’t realize myself that there had been already watchlists created about professors,” said Lane.
With a cast rounded out by Zoey Deutch, Mckenna Grace and Madeline Brewer, Lane said they relied on “our sense of humor to get us through that unjolly time” as the film continues to take increasingly darker and more eerily realistic turns up until its shocking conclusion.
Read on about Diane Lane’s timely role in Anniversary, now playing in theaters.
DEADLINE: The movie was incredible. It was dark and timely. Tell me about building the on-screen friction with Phoebe to embody their history.
DIANE LANE: Well, I mean, having a backstory that’s off camera is interesting for both of us to fill in the blanks in our memories, in our memory banks of what it would have been like to have a disagreement in a teaching environment. That’s very awkward, and I didn’t realize myself that there had been already watchlists created about professors. I don’t even know how that works really, but I mean, my father taught critical thinking at City University of New York, so I don’t know. It was an interesting time to imagine this woman coming back to date my son eight years later. Nobody believes why I would be paranoid. I’m like, ‘Oh no, she’s got an agenda, this one.’
DEADLINE: Always trust mom. This is such a great ensemble cast. What was it like working with Kyle and your onscreen kids to embody these tense family differences?
LANE: You know, it wasn’t a jolly time. It was not, but we needed our sense of humor to get us through that unjolly time. So, I don’t know how to explain it because we were in Ireland together. We filmed it there, and recreating America in 2023, the best we could in that environment, meant that we had to lean in and bring as much of our memory to it as possible, because you can be impacted by being in another culture and we didn’t want to be sidetracked by anything. Nobody has an Irish accent or anything. That would be scary. So, we did create a sense of discomfort, and that’s helpful. So, it’s a balancing act.
DEADLINE: You’ve been arrested for protesting before, and I’m curious what was that experience like and how did your real life activism impact how you approach this character?
LANE: I mean, it’s a totally different approach in the sense of, exercising my rights as a citizen to be within the realm of intentionally getting arrested for bringing attention to the cause. I mean, that was the point, and it was very much helmed by somebody who knows exactly what they’re doing, which is Jane Fonda, and she’s extraordinary. Her weight on the scale of justice in terms of the planet and air and water, and that we all need these things. I mean, she’s doing the best she can, and I’m supporting of anything we can do to preserve our planet. I’m not interested in Mars, thank you very much.
DEADLINE: Amen. Like I said, this movie is obviously very timely, scarily so.
LANE: For Halloween? We’re right in time for Halloween. We’re bringing it.
DEADLINE: Exactly! Are you prepared for like the discourse this movie is bound to stir up?
LANE: I mean, no. Can you prepare for that? No. But at the same time, yes, we’ve been waiting for a very long time for this film to come out, sort of. And as a cast, we were on a group text for a long time, just witnessing the things that were happening that are now history of our country that we can’t believe has been going on in the interim since we filmed. So, it’s a group experience, democracy in our country, and I think Jan Komasa, being a European filmmaker, with his eyes on our country in terms of the experiment that it is for democracy, it’s very timely, and I appreciate it as an opportunity.
DEADLINE: Yeah, and I was watching the screener around the time all the Jimmy Kimmel stuff was happening, so the fact that the daughter is this comedian who’s being chased into hiding…
LANE: Yeah, and then I heard that George Carlin was faked out on AI, and it’s just, it’s all the times we live in. It’s kind of like, who needs drugs? Reality is enough.
DEADLINE: There’s also like a punk element to your character—what was it like playing a little punk with Laura Dern in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains and seeing the legacy that movie has nearly 45 years later?
LANE: It was so wild. It was airing not too long ago on TCM, and I very vindicated to see that that film had the legs that it deserves to have, and it was wonderful to have been appreciated by people who went on in their music careers and were emboldened by our story in terms of—it was February of 1980 when we filmed that. So, just put that in your pipe and smoke it. I mean, it was very real to the times just coming out of the 70s. So, punk was already there and getting only more so. But as a point in history, it’s lovely to say I was a part of it in whatever little way that I could be as a 15-year old girl in the film industry.
DEADLINE: And I don’t know if you’re a very online person, but there’s one quote from the movie that’s just been making the rounds on my Instagram, and it’s the one where you tell Billy, “You’re jealous, I’m everything you want to be,” and he calls you the C word. So, I love that it’s still so present today.
LANE: It means something lighter in England,so I think when [Ray} Winstone, the leading man, says to me that word, and I say “exactly,” I’m not sure that he knew the power that it has in our culture.
DEADLINE: But also that word has come around now for younger generations, and it’s very empowering, so that’s why it’s being shared.
LANE: Oh, feminism, you never know what turn it’s gonna take.
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