Katie Aselton on Directing Diane Keaton, ‘Sex and the City’ and the Mascara She Pushes on Everyone

There’s nothing quite like a summer-Friday, big-movie premiere, and the just-released-today Mack & Rita not only brings Diane Keaton and an all-star cast to the big screen, but also delivers a unique twist on the coming-of-age comedy. (Read: There’s no expiration date on living your best life). Director Katie Aselton—on the acting side, she’s best-known for her role in The League, and has also appeared in Togetherness, Casual, Legion, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep, The Morning Show and more—sat down with us this week to talk working with Keaton, keeping the glam “real” on-set, and the serum she just got turned on to.

I’m sure you keep getting asked this, but what does it feel like to direct Diane Keaton?

Well, it was like her first movie, so, like with a lot of first-time actors, they’re very nervous. No! I am joking! I mean, please, she is a legend. I have had a poster of Diane Keaton on my wall since I was a child. We replayed Baby Boom at my eighth birthday party sleepover. That was my sleepover movie. I have idolized, adored and revered this woman my entire life, so to work with her was just an absolute dream.

The greatest thing about Diane is that what we know of her as an audience, what we have fallen in love with over the decades, is exactly who she is. It’s why she is so perfect for this movie—she’s 100-percent unapologetically, authentically herself.

There’s a bit of a “you’re never too old” learning in the movie. What’s the larger message on ageism?

Look, I hope that people can watch this and see that there is no expiration date on living your best life. Sex and the City started when I was…I don’t know, I started watching it when I was probably around 20 and the women were 40, I guess, late 30s, early 40s. I looked at them and I was like, ‘Oh! There’s time!’ It was so aspirational, right?

Now that I’m in my 40s, I look at the women in this movie, Diane, Loretta, Amy Hill, Lois Smith, and Wendie Malick, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re my Sex and the City ladies.’ I aspire to be them, and to lean into my girlfriends, and to have so much fun, and not give two shits about what anyone else says. That is the dream.

David Higgs You usually are the one doing the acting, but what, beauty-wise, was important to convey as the director in this film?

You know, it’s interesting…this is the first movie I’ve directed that I wasn’t in, but it is the first movie that I had cared so much about what I looked like! I dressed for Diane every day because she is so aesthetically minded. It was less of a beauty and that was more of a style thing.

Beauty-wise, I love what hair feels like, real hair. I hate having hair that’s too done. I’m a girl from Maine and I have a hard time loving getting super glammed. I love being glammed for 20 minutes and then eight minutes of high-glam feels very hard. I am ultimately a very low-maintenance beauty girl.

Care to share any favorites?

I have just gotten into the True Botanicals Chebula Serum ($75) that I really, really, really like. I like to try and keep things as clean as possible. I like ILIA’s Tinted SPF ($48). It’s really great. The one I go hard at that I push to everyone is MERIT’s Mascara ($26). I really love it. It’s the first time I have a mascara that doesn’t drip down my face!

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