Diane Lane Talks Turning 50 And The Rejection That Has Haunted Her Since Age 12
Diane Lane is totally over turning 50. The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice star says she actually “rehearsed” for her milestone birthday last year because she wasn’t going to let it “terrify” her, and she revealed that she is finally done apologizing to people for being herself. In a new interview with More magazine, Diane Lane said that while her relationship with aging is now “cozy,” it wasn’t exactly easy growing up with this old “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” ads in the 1970s, because it set women up to tear each other down.
“We grew up with that s**t. It was the start of that psychoanalytical thing in our culture where we market to women by making women compete with each other. I found it very discordant.”
In the More interview, Diane also pointed out that there are countless industries that thrive on the insecurities of women.
“So you’re not allowed to say ‘I’m pretty,’ because you might get eaten alive by the rest of the tribe, you know? And the fact is that most – I mean, I don’t even know if we could run down the list of all the industries that exist because of the propagation of female insecurity.”
Diane Lane photographed by David Slijper for MORE magazine 2016. pic.twitter.com/5bgsWLOmeu
— Joan Darc (@joandarcdoll) February 21, 2016
While she says she’s human and also vulnerable to feeling insecure, Lane said she doesn’t sweat the small stuff, including those days when she feels fat or when she happens to have a bad hair day. And that’s probably because the actress had to deal with insecurity issues at a very young age. At age 12, Diane Lane was famously rejected as a model by the legendary Eileen Ford and the rejection stuck with her.
“Imagine if somebody said your nose is too big or your ears stick out. For me, it was my neck was too short. It stuck with me all my life.”
While Diane walked out of Ford’s office feeling not so great about herself, less than a year later she was a cover girl for Time. The iconic news mag featured Diane Lane for the cover of the popular “Hollywood’s Whiz Kids” story when she was 13-years-old after she starred in the 1979 film A Little Romance. Lane’s co-star Laurence Olivier even described her as “the new Grace Kelly.”
Diane Lane wasn’t an official member of Hollywood’s “Brat Pack,” but the actress did star in one of the biggest films of the ’80 era. Lane was cast as the single female lead in the ensemble 1983 film The Outsiders alongside future superstars Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, and Ralph Macchio.
In an interview posted by Yahoo Movies, Lane said she had a major crush on actor-singer Leif Garrett, who also appeared in The Outsiders and actually played her boyfriend in the film. She also talked about her Oscar-nominated turn in the 2002 movie Unfaithful, which actually came at a painful price.
“I herniated my neck during the kissing scene [with Olivier Martinez]. We must’ve done like 50 takes. So my neck finally went out…I’m still getting work for that.”
Diane Lane has made headlines in recent years for her high-profile divorce from Josh Brolin, as well as her movie roles in films like Trumbo and Man of Steel. Lane will reprise her role as Martha Kent in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is slated to be hit theaters later this year.
Take a look at the throwback video below, which shows Diane Lane on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at age 18.
[Photo By Charley Gallay/Getty Images]
