Hi, Diane! Wait, can I call you Diane?
Please!
What are you up to right now?
I’m lying on the bed, and I turned on the TV because you were having technical problems (1). So I was scrolling through what’s available on the television here, and I don’t normally indulge in something like that, but I had this weird pocket of time. It was like junk food for your brain. It was really bad, so I’m glad you saved me from myself.
My guess is you’re in a hotel then.
I’m at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and I’m just pinching myself. I’ve never been to this hotel. My mother sang here in the 50s, she had a gig – I remember hearing about it (2). I think that’s pretty cool. I’ve never, ever been in the lobby of this place – it’s like a train station. It’s huge.
I feel spoiled. I’ve never stayed there, mind you, but I’ve been to that hotel countless times for press junkets to interview famous folk like yourself.
Well, I’m late to the party – what can I say? [Laughs]
You’ve been a Hollywood player for most of of your life, so I’m guessing you were familiar with the story of Dalton Trumbo (3) before taking this on.
I had certainly heard of the Hollywood Ten, and I know movie stars whose parents were blacklisted. Still to this day you don’t want to name names. It’s one of those things – the more you stir it, the more it stinks. It’s a shocking, sad reality that was endured, and we pulled up and out and through it, thanks in no small measure to Trumbo himself. He didn’t ask for this fight – the fight came to him. He was tenacious and circumspect enough as a screenplay writer to beat them at their own game. And of course, there was a great deal of family sacrifice that went into that.
You must have connected with that family aspect. Your childhood wasn’t by any means a normal one (4).
I think anyone whose childhood was swamped by external forces have a common spine about them. We grew up faster than is traditional. Whether it’s through adversity or a perceived blessing, either way, it wakes you from the dream of childhood prematurely.
Elle Fanning plays your daughter in the film. I’m guessing you two had a lot to talk about.
I did get to work with her sister [Dakota] as well.
Yeah, in Every Secret Thing.
Yeah! These girls have great parents – these young women I should say; they’re not girls anymore. You can see it in their character. Having been a child actor, and now I am the parent of a 22-year-old, I give a lot more credit to parents than I used to. You kind of almost resent it when you’re a young person – I’m not speaking about them at all, I’m speaking about myself. About how much you are an acorn from the tree and you hail from your influences – your family and your blood.
Your character is definitely impacted and informed by your parents – and it’s a beautiful thing to see these young women be so, not just obviously talented, but aware and polite. They’re deeply invested in the best possible outcome as a team player. That comes with experience, and they have had that experience. They are good to go.
They didn’t make actors, really young ones, that strong when I was doing it. We had after-school specials and things – we weren’t in the Oscar race. You know what I’m saying? So my hat’s way off to these young ladies.
They also have the internet to contend with – something you didn’t have to worry about back in the day.
Don’t get me started! I am not a digital native. I hide from social media. I just don’t really enjoy the rabbit hole that my day can go down into. It’s like an alternate universe. You plug in, and there you are. I like the one that my body is present for. [Laughs] Call me crazy.
You’re telling me you’ve never Googled yourself on a bad night?
Um, I’m going to plead the fifth? [Laughs]
The housewife you play in Trumbo is a long way from the one you portrayed in my favorite film of yours, Unfaithful. Who was more fun to play?
What do you mean?
Er, that was vague. Sorry. On-screen husbands – you’ve had some fantastic ones over the years. How did Bryan Cranston stack up to, say, Richard Gere in Unfaithful?
[Laughs] For me, it’s always a pleasure to experience artists stretching out of their comfort zone – that’s where they say life begins. I think that’s true of the amount of risk that it feels to go out on a limb for your craft. Bryan in this case had just come off the exhilarating and exhausting locomotive-train performance that he won the Tony for in All the Way. I got to see that performance live, and it’s something you never forget.
He’s got a tremendous capacity. So I was very confident that he would find the sweet spot and hit it out of the park. And he did. He never really came down from that almost steroidal high that theater demands of actors. He was just able to sort of keep oscillating at that speed, but turn his sights on Trumbo’s character and story.
He sports a formidable moustache in the film. When I have two days’ worth of stubble, my partner doesn’t even want to go near my face. Was it tough to get close to Bryan?
Well, there’s a difference between the spiky, new growth of what would become a beard or a moustache than a fully grown-in one. It’s much softer. But I will say that the herbal cigarettes that Bryan had to chain smoke in this movie definitely created a not so desirable smell.
Is that your way of telling me that the smoke reeked of pot?
No! [Laughs] The herbal factor doesn’t mean it’s a potpourri you want to …
Inhale?
Yeah! [Laughs] So I felt much compassion for him.
Thanks for your time, and keep enjoying your bed.
Oh, I’m off the bed now. I had to greet the day.
Footnotes
(1) The writer couldn’t get his phone recording software to function properly for five minutes. He eventually figured out a solution.
(2) Lane’s mother was a cabaret singer who also posed as a centerfold model for Playboy (Miss October 1957). She passed away this year.
(3) Lane’s new movie, Trumbo, centers on revered screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who in 1947, was blacklisted, along with many of his Hollywood colleagues, for their political beliefs. Lane plays his supportive and loving wife, Cleo.
(4) Lane began to act professionally in the theatre at age six. At 13, she made her feature film debut opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance, who famously declared her to be “the new Grace Kelly.” As a result, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
