Poor Jack Nicholson.
The three-time Oscar winner was apparently fooled into thinking Diane Keaton had actually fallen in love with him while the two were playing lovers in 2002’s Something’s Gotta Give.
The film’s writer and director Nancy Meyers recalled the story at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, saying, according to Vulture, that the confusion occurred during the scene when Keaton’s character professes her love to Nicholson.
“We’re rehearsing that scene in the street, where he’s running after her, and he calls me over after one rehearsal. He’s all rattled,” Meyers said of Nicholson, according to the outlet.
“I said, ‘What’s up?’ And he goes, ‘Diane just told me she loves me.’ I couldn’t tell if he was horrified or thrilled. So I was like, ‘Yes, I know, I wrote that line. It’s in the script, Jack.’ And he said, ‘Oh, okay.’ He thought she meant it. It’s really funny. That’s her.”
Nicholson wasn’t the only one impressed with his costar’s performance. Keaton earned an Oscar nomination for the role, losing out that year to Charlize Theron, who won for her transformative performance in Monster.
Meyers also revealed some of Keaton’s acting tricks, explaining that she has an “off-center” style of performing. “She doesn’t want to be spot-on, or exactly what you’ll expect,” the director said, according to Vulture.
In order to get herself in the right frame of mind, Meyers said Keaton will sometimes literally “spin around to get herself off balance a little bit” before the cameras start to roll.
Keaton is next bringing her off-kilter style to the upcoming comedy Book Club, about a group of longtime friends who spice up their literary meetings with a reading of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Book Club hits theaters May 18.