Capote vs. the Swans’ and What Slim Keith Taught Her

The Emmy campaign trail can be a slog, but Diane Lane is loving it. With an Emmy nomination in tow, Lane has been hitting the circuit to discuss her part in Ryan Murphy’s FX limited series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.” It’s a busy time as voting gets underway: Right after speaking to Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, she was headed to another FYC event.

“This whole estimation of women’s worth is really in the zeitgeist, certainly politically and globally,” Lane says. “And it’s a wonderful time to be a woman because I think we’re continuing to put the footprints in the sand for generations to take even steps further generations.”

In an interview with Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, Lane sat down with senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay and admitted she’s much more present than she used to be, and how at this stage of her life and career, she’s feeling more alive than ever. “In the third act of life, which I’m embarking on, the hiding is getting old.” Listen below!

Lane has come a long way since her first Emmy nomination in 1989 for playing Lorena Wood in the mini-series “Lonesome Dove.”

“I don’t know if the nomination process is something I have no recollection of. I don’t know if I blocked it out,” she says. Lane scored her second nomination in 2011 for the HBO mini-series “Cinema Verite” and just landed her third for playing Nancy “Slim” Keith in FX’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.”

In “Feud,” Lane stars opposite a powerhouse cast that includes Naomi Watts, Demi Moore, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Lange and Molly Ringwald. Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote. Capote betrays his close circle of New York’s powerful high society women known as the Swans by publishing a story titled “La Côte Basque, 1965” in Esquire and revealing their secrets. 

Lane recalls getting a call from Murphy and being the first choice for Slim, and was on board right away. “It was a compliment. I was hooked,” Lane says

Her portrayal of Slim has resonated with audiences and with the voting members of the Television Academy. Lane believes Slim was a firm and unyielding woman. “She wasn’t wishy-washy about it. She declared war and said, ‘We have to unite on this goal of shunning Truman utterly, to the point of chasing him off the planet if necessary.’”

Lane says that her character felt very vilified as a result of Capote, as though she were the one who’d committed the crime of uttering horrible things about people. “She felt like she had her reputation at stake and wasn’t going to allow it to besmirch her, and she knew a lot about declaring war.”

When Lane took the part, she wasn’t privy to how the series would end. Lane says it’s a new work model for her to not have all the details on what her character is going to be doing and saying. She gets around the uncertainty by trusting in what she’s being told. “You have to understand the subtleties of what they’re saying with the words they use,” she says. “It’s a learning curve for me, and I’m trying to roll with it. And it’s increasing my flexibility as an artist. It’s increasing my imagination. It’s increasing how I dream. It’s more of a living, breathing, moving river of water.”

Having been in the industry and acting since she was six years old, Lane has an extensive and diverse body of work. Asked what she looks for in roles now, Lane says she feels more liberated in her choices. Sometimes she chose to play parts that didn’t require much travel so she could be home to raise her kid. But with her daughter Eleanor following in her mother’s footsteps into acting, Lane feels liberated from the school year.

This different era has allowed Lane to learn more about women and herself. “They’re so interesting, and they’ve been through stuff, and they have crafted a level of strength to navigate the different stages.”

Despite having an Oscar nomination for “Unfaithful” and credits including “Inside Out 2” (she voices Riley’s mom) and “Under the Tuscan Sun,” Lane says at times she feels she still has to make her case. “I think, ‘you don’t have to try so hard. Diane, it’s okay. They understand you, you don’t have to be so emphatic.’” Slim Keith was a fierce woman, ahead of her time, and Lane thinks there’s more where that came from.

Also on this episode of the podcast, the roundtable goes through the major series categories for this year’s Emmys.

Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.