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Sarah Jessica Parker is remembering the “inspired and instructive” scenes she filmed with the late Diane Keaton for the 2005 film, The Family Stone.
In a new CNN special, The First Christmas Without Diane, Parker and other stars of the 2005 holiday comedy recounted what it was like working with the actress, who starred as Sybil Stone, matriarch of the titular family, whose breast cancer diagnosis shakes up their reunion.
Parker, 60, detailed the challenge of filming one scene in which her character, Meredith, distributes Christmas gifts to each member of the family in order to mend fences with her and the other characters, including Sybil.
“In theory, it was it was scary. I was very nervous about it. I did feel like she was a real combatant, like we were in proper swordplay, and that I had to be both capable of that but also not win,” Parker said of Keaton, adding that the film offered an opportunity to “watch her work and to see how she puts it all together.”
Keaton, she added, served as something of a guide for her own acting process: “Really just listening to Diane and responding, given the story, was my best approach, and I loved it.”
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Elsewhere in the special, Parker recounted how Keaton brought a special sort of inquisitiveness to set, asking her co-stars about personal topics — or, as she described, “typically not questions that somebody would ask another person.”
“She liked asking very personal questions,” Parker told CNN, adding that Keaton would ask about “everything from money to, like, really funny, provocative” topics.
“I think it was simply because she was so interested in people,” Parker told the outlet. “She loved knowing odd facts about people and, I guess, what makes a person an individual was very interesting to her.”
Parker added that Keaton “was the first person I ever saw put ice cubes into a Pinot Noir,” saying: “Now everybody puts their Pinot Noir in the fridge. So of course, typically as usual, she knew something before everybody else.”
Keaton died on Oct. 11 at age 79 after a bacterial pneumonia infection, per a death certificate. “The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane,” read a statement from her family.
Thomas Bezucha, writer and director of The Family Stone, told CNN in a recent interview that he’s working on a follow-up to the film.
“I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already,” Bezucha, 61, said. “Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”
Keaton’s passing, he added, made a sequel feel even more important, as he wants to “do a good job by the rest of the cast” and “honor [Keaton] even more.”
