20 Questions: Diane Lane

It was easy for America to fall in love with actress Diane Lane when, at the age of 13, she made her screen debut opposite Laurence Olivier in "A Little Romance." Both the infatuation and Diane have since grown, as she has filled out more mature teenage roles in such films as "The Outsiders," "Rumble Fish," "Six Pack" and the sartorially memorable "Streets of Fire." Now she co-stars with Richard Gere in Francis Coppola's controversial "The Cotton Club." Contributing Editor David Rensin met with Lane in New York. Says Rensin, "There are 19-year-olds and there are 19-year-olds. Diane Lane is definitely both."

1.

[Q] Playboy: What did you want to be when you grew up?

[A] Lane: When I was eight, I drew a picture of myself as I aspired to be. I was wearing a sexy, floor-length gown with a slit and spaghetti straps. I had a great figure, and I was standing on a pedestal. I had a glass in my hand and I was making a toast. People were throwing flowers; there were roses all over the floor. I pictured myself still young and good-looking by the time I was successful. I wanted to think that by the time I had arrived, I wouldn't need a face lift. Of course, when I drew the picture, I didn't even have bee stings for breasts. But I was already asking my mom, "Can you see what I'm going to look like when I'm older?" I felt like the ugly duckling--who would one day become the swan.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Are you surprised by the way your looks have changed?

[A] Lane: I am relieved to look the way I do now. The flesh does hang well off my bones. And I don't exercise. I haven't yet reached that point where I'm saving, "If I could only suck in my thighs, I'd be happy." You can suck in your stomach but not your thighs. But I also know that pretty soon I'm going to have to earn it and work on it so that my ass stays where it is. I don't want to have it drop when I hit 22.

3.

[Q] Playboy: You were on the cover of Time when you were 14 years old. How did that change your life?

[A] Lane: I didn't know I was going to be on the cover until the day the issue came out.I hit the subway that morning and saw my face. I freaked. The newspaper guy was having a hoot, though, handing magazines over to my mom and me--piles of them.

[A] ctually, being on the cover impressed me. I wondered, What did I do right? It must be in the stars. Thank God it happened, because no one had ever heard of me before. I thought they'd use Tatum O'Neal or Jodie Foster or a montage of faces. But when I saw my face there, it sort of brought Time down to my level. I thought, Gee. Me and President Carter.

4.

[Q] Playboy: You worked with Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance, the film that put you on the Time cover. What did you learn from the experience?

[A] Lane: I knew that I had to keep working. You don't just do a film with Olivier and not follow it up. Besides, everyone was saying, "Boy, you have this amazing career in front of you. How promising." Working with Olivier also did something for my self-image. I'd seen Hamlet on PBS late at night when I was 11. My dad said, "Stay up and watch it. It's very important." And I'm glad I did. So, later, to be able to sit in a room and have a conversation with Olivier was unbelievable.

5.

[Q] Playboy: If you could, what man would you like to trade places with for one day?

[A] Lane: Obviously, the guy I was involved with. I'd want to know what he thought of me. You know, think of making love to another body from the other perspective. You could guarantee an orgasm. The beginning and the end of sex are in your hands. [Pauses] Hmm. Who would I pick? Not my dad. Not any actor I'd worked with. Maybe Coppola. [Laughs] I'd do it because I want to know all his dark secrets. He's got such a wide-scope life. He produces films, finances them, is a great chef, has a great wife, family and home, a vineyard. He knows how to do everything. I'd like to know what it feels like to have had all those achievements.

6.

[Q] Playboy: Much was written about the not so-behind-the-scenes struggles during the filming of The Cotton Club, which Coppola directed. What did the press miss?

[A] Lane: Suck it out of me with a syringe! OK. There was a real feeling of alienation for everybody, which was surprising. It was such a rich film that I thought it would require a similar richness from those involved. I never got the feeling that I was connected to what was going on--and it wasn't just me. Of course, it didn't help that you didn't know what was going to happen in the next five minutes. Neither did the publicity. It made everyone step back and lapse into his own perspective while we were making the film.

In my role, I wanted very much to be--it sounds strange--momma. I wanted to be nurturing to the environment in any way I could and not leave my character [Vera Cicero] behind. I usually don't work that way, staying with the character all day. But I wanted to be nurturing--to Francis, to Richard [Gere], even to people in the hallways; to make an effort to give something, even if it was vulgar humor. This film was particularly thick.

7.

[Q] Playboy: You were acting at the age of seven in classic stage tragedies, whose protagonists usually have one tragic flaw. What's yours?

[A] Lane: Shall I run through a list? A recurring theme--though it's not written in stone--is that I have such high expectations of other people that I'm perpetually disappointed. Also, one day, after I've lived a full life as an attractive woman, I'll arrive at a place where I may not be what I once was in terms of my ability to attract someone I want--though I hope to get it all taken care of before I get there. I guess I consider it tragic that I'm going to age like everyone else. There's something going on now in my looks that I want to preserve.

8.

[Q] Playboy: Do you prefer garter belts or panty hose?

[A] Lane: It depends on the person for whom I disrobe.

9.

[Q] Playboy: What's the best advice you've ever gotten about men from a man?

[A] Lane: My dad has said a lot of things to me. We're very tight. In fact, I've said a lot of things to him about women. But I remember the time I didn't know how to break up with my boyfriend and I asked Francis Coppola for advice. He had a daughter who was going to be my age any minute, and I figured it would be good practice for him. Besides, he is very paternal with me, and we talk a lot about real life. He said, "Let him off the hook. Let him think that you're a bad person--if that's what he (continued on page 276)Diane Lane(continued from page 153) needs--so he can feel like he's leaving you."

See, everybody had told me that relationship wouldn't work, but I didn't want to hear it. But people kept saying, "You don't know what love is. Please. I've had three divorces and 12 children. What the hell is love, anyway?" They were trying to piss on my fire. I figured, Hey, I'm 19. Give me a fucking break. I want to be in love! I had never had a boyfriend before. I wanted to be a girlfriend: that whole picture of the young couple walking, holding hands, at sunset on the beach. I thought we were going to be that rare high school couple who make it all the way through, in spite of the odds against us. But he thought I was changing--getting overly sophisticated--and I hated the idea. It scared the hell out of me. And then there was the whole celibacy hit when we were separated--we spent a long period watching our Ps and Qs at a time when our hormones were wreaking havoc on our adolescent bodies. And he also had to go and experience his own challenges, without comparing them with mine. We decided to ignore the situation for a while, but it was like I was waiting for his success to arrive. And that wasn't fair for him.

It was never a matter of dump or be dumped. Francis just meant that it would be best if my boyfriend felt like he was doing the right thing by leaving.

10.

[Q] Playboy: Now that you're unattached, what kind of man has a chance with you? And do you still want that picture of love you described?

[A] Lane: Oh, boy--a shameful lot. [Laughs] I don't have a list of qualifications that I check when I meet someone. That's probably my problem. I would like to be more discriminating about certain things. The bedroom isn't where the screening process should take place. But mainly, I want someone who has had a lot of experience.

I already had what I was talking about before. Now it's time for something else. It's just another season. I'm not saying I don't want a lover--everyone wants one. But I just don't have time for one now. Maybe next week I'll make the time.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Where do you spend Christmas?

[A] Lane: At my best friend's house, usually, because she has a family. My dad will go over there with me sometimes. It will probably hurt my parents' feelings to read this, but I like to be at a home. I go to other people's houses because I assume there should be a lot of people around to give the sensation that Christmas is really there. It's hard to acknowledge Christmas with only two people in the room.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Who is your best friend and why?

[A] Lane: Robin has been my best friend since kindergarten. She's like my living diary. But I wonder if I can call her my best friend any more. I don't know what's going on with her. She went to Mexico to marry this, oh, guy, and I think it's an unbelievable mistake. And she can read about it in Playboy, because I haven't had the nerve to tell her in real life. Plus, she turned punk rock on me. That's fine. I can appreciate it, but when we hang out together, you would not believe that we even knew each other. Still, we went through everything together. She was the only friend I had. My other friends didn't know, because I didn't really rely on them for anything except being there occasionally when I was lucky enough to get them on the phone or had a free minute to talk to them. But Robin I really counted on.

13.

[Q] Playboy: What do you do when there's nothing to do?

[A] Lane: Think about things. Sometimes I get depressed--a lot, sometimes--though more in the past, fortunately. I have plenty of things to occupy me now. But I get dragged down by not being active, not feeling like I'm useful, feeling like I'm getting behind where people think I should be, when I should be making every moment, you know, action-packed.

On the other hand, it's real easy for me to just sit down and watch TV. I'm really amazed at how easily I slip into unemployment. I enjoy it very much. I'd been working straight through until The Cotton Club; then I took off. I'm not a workaholic at all. I should really be reading a book for school instead of watching some rock star shake his ass on MTV.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Speaking of rock stars, would you care to comment on that photo of you in Rolling Stone's "Random Notes" and the caption that placed you in the men's room with John Taylor of Duran Duran at the opening of New York's Hard Rock Café?

[A] Lane: Oh, please. Oh, boy. I'm sure his fiancée loved that. I met the guy that night. Some people were looking for him upstairs. I was going to the bathroom, and--I don't really remember what happened. If you recall, in the picture, I was practically cross-eyed. But that's OK. Who cares? I was not in the bathroom with him. I was just going, 'John, John," and he wasn't hearing me, so I walked over to the men's room and stuck my head in and spoke to him. But you never know who's walking around there. My only concern later was being identified with that crowd of girls who circulate with, and are hung up on, rock musicians--the rock-'n'roll-slut syndrome. I've gone through the period when whenever one walked into the room, I'd freak. My father was very intolerant of me during that phase of my development. He couldn't understand. He thought I should have more dignity than to get flushed in the face when a rock star was around. He said, "Diane, don't you know you are just as important as he is?" Important, schmortant. It didn't matter to me at the time, because your idols are your idols. I mean, you wouldn't believe whose picture I had on my wall when I was 12--and I'm not going to tell you, either. Now I agree with my father.

15.

[Q] Playboy: What can money buy and what do you spend yours on?

[A] Lane: It can buy time and places and sometimes people--though I wouldn't want anyone I could buy. I spend it on trying to make myself and other people happy. I buy pants, shoes, garish nail polish to wear only once. I may not need something, but I want it, and I have the money, so why the hell shouldn't I? I also try to purchase culture--like art--to learn through seeing, because I've always felt there's not going to be enough time to acquire it through experience.

16.

[Q] Playboy: Do young people still think a lot about death?

[A] Lane: I have had this bizarre thought that mine will not be a simple, normal death. For a while, I thought that after my kids had grown up, a UFO would descend and relieve me of this existence-- just take me away. Can you imagine? Later, when I was 12, I went to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I was standing up in the theater, yelling and crying, "Take me! Take me!" My friends were holding me down, saying, "You're embarrassing us. Sit down." But my girlfriend was crying, too. We were very moved. We wanted to go out on that spaceship. I've never actually seen a UFO, but I've always thought they'd show themselves to me. I always thought I was important in that sense. I thought I had some kind of connection with those UFO people. I mean, I'm mocking it now, but it was a very serious thing that I respected at the time.

17.

[Q] Playboy: Your parents were divorced 13 days after you were born, and you've since lived with one or the other. Any advice for single parents?

[A]Lane: Respect your child's intelligence and don't try to hide lots of stuff about yourself from your kid. You're not going to be able to, anyway.

18.

[Q] Playboy: What gift have you always wanted to give your father?

[A] Lane: The home that he wants; someplace he'd be happy in and that would be more "him" than these cubicles he lives in in Manhattan. He wants to develop a green thumb--and he's good at it. He's got four-foot grapefruit trees in his apartment.

19.

[Q] Playboy: Here's the socially redeeming part of the interview. This is your chance to speak out to someone or about any subject. Yor're on?

[A] Lane: Oh, great, on the three seconds' notice! Hmm. Well, not in order of priority, but I was thinking of this last night. If I had a wish, or wishes, one of them would be to be able to make love to any man I wanted to and be able to erase it from his pompous memory. And that would be all I'd need to make me a little happier. The man wouldn't know what happened: "How did I get into this room? What happened to my clothes?" 'Bye; see you on the subway. I don't want to have to deal with the aftereffects of his having tainted me or had me or however he saw it, or I might fear he saw it. The whole conquest aspect of sex is something I wouldn't have to deal with then. Of course, I've been told by some guys who are just friends that I'm a bit of a conquestor myself.

Can I have another shot? I'm concerned about the use of the ocean as our toilet bowl. I think everything in this hotel room will probably be at the bottom of the ocean before I'm dead, and it's a damn shame. The one thing that should reach beyond international politics is the way we dispose of our crap. It makes me angry.

20.

[Q] Playboy: What are you looking forward to?

[A] Lane: I'd like to get past this age where people don't yet expect me to be a responsible person.

We spent a long time minding our Ps and Qs when our hormones were wreaking havoc with our bodies.