With professors on watch lists and comedians on thin cultural ice, Diane Lanelast role in directing Red Comasa's Anniversary never been more insightful.
Leading a star-studded ensemble as matriarch Ellen, the Oscar nominee admitted to Deadline that she wasn't prepared for the discourse that the dystopian political thriller/family drama now in theaters would inevitably entail.
“Can you prepare for this? No,” she said. “But at the same time, yeah, we've been waiting a long time for this movie to come out. And as actors, we've been in a group text for a long time, just watching things happen that have now become the history of our country, and we can't believe what's happened since we've been filming.”
Lane continued: “So this is a group experience, democracy in our country, and I think Jan Komasa, being a European director looking at our country from the perspective of an experiment in democracy, is very timely and I appreciate it as an opportunity.”
Co-written with Komasa and Laurie Rosene-Gambino. Anniversary It stars Lane and Kyle Chandler as college professor Ellen and her husband Paul, whose children get together every year to celebrate their anniversary. When their son Josh (Dylan O'Brien) brings home his new girlfriend Liz (Phoebe Dynevor), Ellen recognizes her as a radical former student who leads the controversial Change Movement.
“I didn’t realize there were already watch lists created for professors,” Lane said.
Lane said the cast, complete with Zoey Deutch, McKenna Grace and Madeline Brewer, relied on “our sense of humor to get us through this dark time” as the film continues to take increasingly darker and eerily realistic turns until its shocking ending.
Read on for Diane Lane's timely role in Anniversaryis now playing in cinemas.
DEADLINE: The film was incredible. It was dark and timely. Tell me about how to build an on-screen interaction with Phoebe to bring their story to life.
DIANA LANE: Well, I mean, the behind-the-scenes backstory is interesting for both of us to fill in the gaps in our memories, in our memory banks of what it would be like to have disagreements in a teaching environment. This is very awkward, and I didn't realize that there were already watch lists created for professors. I don't even know how it actually works, but I mean my dad taught critical thinking at the City University of New York, so I don't know. It was interesting to imagine this woman returning to date my son eight years later. Nobody believes why I'm paranoid. I was like, “Oh no, she has a plan, this one.”
Phoebe Dynevor and Dylan O'Brien in The Anniversary (2025) (Lionsgate/Courtesy of the Everett Collection)
DEADLINE: Always trust your mom. This is such a great ensemble cast. What was it like working with Kyle and your onscreen children to bring these tense family differences to life?
LANE: You know, it was a sad time. This was not the case, but we needed a sense of humor to get through this sad time. So, I don't know how to explain it because we were in Ireland together. We filmed it there, and recreating America in 2023 as best we could in that environment meant we had to lean in and bring as many of our memories into it as possible because you can be affected by being in a different culture and we didn't want anything to distract us. Nobody has an Irish accent or anything like that. It would be scary. So we've created a feeling of discomfort, and that's helpful. So it's a balancing act.
DEADLINE: You've been arrested before for protesting, and I'm curious what that experience was like and how your actual activism influenced your take on this character?
LANE: I mean, this is a completely different approach in terms of exercising my rights as a citizen to be deliberately arrested for bringing attention to this matter. I mean, that was the point, and it was directed by someone who knows exactly what she's doing, which is Jane Fonda, and she's extraordinary. It weighs on the scales of justice in terms of the planet, the air and the water, and the fact that we all need these things. I mean, she's doing everything she can, and I support anything we can do to save our planet. I'm not interested in Mars, thank you very much.
DEADLINE: Amen. As I said, this film is clearly very timely, even frighteningly so.
LANE: For Halloween? We're just in time for Halloween.
Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane in Anniversary (2025) (Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection)
DEADLINE: Exactly! Are you ready for the discussion this film is sure to spark?
LANE: I mean, no. Can you prepare for this? No. But at the same time, yeah, we've been waiting a long time for this movie to come out, sort of. And as actors, we worked on the group text for a long time, just watching things happen that have now become the history of our country, and we can't believe they've happened since we've been filming. So this is a group experience, democracy in our country, and I think Jan Komasa, being a European director, looking at our country from the point of view of an experiment in democracy is very timely and I appreciate it as an opportunity.
DEADLINE: Yeah, and I was watching the broadcast around the time the whole Jimmy Kimmel thing was going on, so the fact that the daughter is a comedian who's being driven to go into hiding…
LANE: Yeah, and then I heard that George Carlin was fooled by artificial intelligence, and that's just the times we live in. It's like, who needs drugs? Reality is enough.
Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane in Anniversary (2025) (Owen Behan/Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection)
DEADLINE: There's also a punk element to your character – what was it like playing a little punk with Laura Dern in Ladies and gentlemen, “Fairy Spots” and see the legacy of this film almost 45 years later?
LANE: It was so wild. It aired on TCM not too long ago, and I was very convinced that this movie had the legs that it deserved, and it was wonderful that it was appreciated by people who had continued their music careers and were inspired by our story from the point of view – it was February 1980 when we filmed it. So, just put it in your pipe and smoke it. I mean, it was very real for the times just coming out of the 70s. So punk was already there, and it's only getting bigger. But as a historical moment, it's nice to say that I was a part of it to the smallest extent that I could have been as a 15-year-old girl in the film industry.
DEADLINE: And I don't know if you like online, but there's one quote from the movie that just made the rounds on my Instagram, and it's the one where you tell Billy, “You're jealous, I'm who you want to be,” and he calls you the C-word. So I love that it's still so relevant today.
LANE: In England it means something lighter, so I guess when [Ray} Winstone, the leading man, says to me that word, and I say “exactly,” I’m not sure that he knew the power that it has in our culture.
DEADLINE: But also that word has come around now for younger generations, and it’s very empowering, so that’s why it’s being shared.
LANE: Oh, feminism, you never know what turn it’s gonna take.
