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Woody Allen is opening up about Diane Keaton for the first time following her death.
Keaton, who dated Allen for a few years starting in 1969, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday at 79.
Now, Allen is remembering her in an essay for “The Free Press.”
The polarizing filmmaker wrote, “It’s grammatically incorrect to say ‘most unique,’ but all rules of grammar, and I guess anything else, are suspended when talking about Diane Keaton. Unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again, her face and laugh illuminated any space she entered.”
He said they met in 1969 after acting teacher Sandy Meisner recommended newcomer Diane audition for his play “Play It Again, Sam” at the Morosco Theatre.
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Allen recalled thinking at the time, “If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton.”
Although both were very shy, they connected during a meal break. “She was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Could I be in love so quickly?” he wrote.
They went on to work on eight films together across 20 years.
Keaton appeared in Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam” (1972), “Sleeper” (1973), “Love & Death” (1975), “Annie Hall” (1977), “Interiors” (1978), “Manhattan” (1979), “Radio Days” (1987), and “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993).
In fact, Allen so considered his then-girlfriend his muse that he wrote “Annie Hall” for and about her. She won the Oscar for the part.
He wrote in the essay, “As time went on I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton. I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it.”
Woody later shared, “This beautiful yokel went on to become an award-winning actress and sophisticated fashion icon.”
He wrote of their romantic relationship, “We had a few great personal years together and finally we both moved on, and why we parted only God and Freud might be able to figure out.”
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Allen closed by writing, “A few days ago the world was a place that included Diane Keaton. Now it’s a world that does not. Hence, it’s a drearier world. Still, there are her movies. And her great laugh still echoes in my head.”
Following her death, People magazine reported the director was “extremely distraught” over the news.
A source told the outlet that Allen, 89, felt Keaton’s passing “makes him think of his own mortality.”
While friendly, Keaton and Allen were not especially close — he had been unaware that her health was slipping, making her death all the more of a jolt.
Though the two broke up many years prior, when Allen was accused of child sexual abuse by his adult daughter Dylan Farrow, Keaton went out on a limb for him, tweeting, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him,” also writing, “It might be of interest to take a look at the ’60 Minutes’ interview from 1992 and see what you think.”
Allen celebrated Keaton at the 45th Annual AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 2017, where he said, “The minute I met her, she was a great, great inspiration to me. Much of what I’ve accomplished in my life I owe, for sure, to her. Seeing life through her eyes. She really is astonishing. This is a woman who is great at everything she does.”
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