Actor Diane Keaton has kissed many actors over the course of her historic career. But there were still a few actors like Morgan Freeman who managed to surprise Keaton despite her experience.
Diane Keaton rated Morgan Freeman her best onscreen kisser
Keaton never got tired of kissing her male co-stars. So much so that she looked forward to kissing more. On The Ellen Show (via Contact Music), Keaton confided that she wanted to break a specific cinematic record she made for herself.
“What I’ve decided that I would like as my goal in life is to be the woman in films who has had the most kisses with men on film. I’m thinking that maybe 50 is what I’m going for, so I have a little bit of time,” she said. “I have done exactly… more like18. I have a long way to go.”
Keaton had kissed stars from Will Ferrell to Bradley Cooper to Michael Douglas. But if there was one kisser who impressed her more than others, it was Morgan Freeman. The two veteran actors starred as a married couple in the 2014 feature 5 Flights Up. And apart from his acting, one of the things that stood out about Freeman’s performance was his lips.
“His lips were just so luscious. You just pushed your lips up against them and you squeezed in and it felt gooey and good,” she added.
It was a fun fact that Keaton wasn’t shy about letting Freeman know to his face personally.
“You and those lips,” Keaton told Freeman in their joint interview with Today. “You’re my favorite on-screen kiss ever. That was dreamy. I loved every bit of it, and I hope that we can do it one more time. I’m open to the possibility.”
However, Freeman wasn’t Keaton’s favorite onscreen lover overall. That honor went to Liam Neeson, who he worked with in the 1988 movie The Good Mother.
Morgan Freeman told Diane Keaton ‘I want you’ the second he saw her
Up until 5 Flights Up, Freeman never worked with Keaton before. However, the Book Club star was one of a handful of prestigious actors Freeman always wanted to work with.
“And she [Keaton] is really high on my bucket list,” Freeman said in an interview with Newsweek.
So when Freeman first received the script for 5 Flights Up, casting Keaton as his love interest was pretty much a no-brainer.
“I had never worked with her before. So when this story came to us, it was a short question: Who? Who are we gonna dance with? Who would we like to dance with? There are three or four at the top of my bucket list, and she’s way up there,” he said.
But 5 Flights Up wasn’t the first time Freeman and Keaton laid eyes on each other. They met years ago on another project Freeman was working on. The short exchange they had behind the scenes was simple, but effective.
“2008. I was doing [the play] Country Girl with Frances McDormand, and she came backstage and I met her. You meet people that you practically know because you’ve watched all their work. So I just told her how much I loved her and wanted her. And she says, ‘Well, I want you, too.’ So first opportunity that came along, I called and said, ‘Read this for me, please.’ She called and said, ‘I like it. Let’s do it,’” he said.
The fact that the Bruce Almighty star already admired Keaton made playing her husband a very smooth process.
“When you’re working with somebody you really, really like, and you find that in person rather than seeing them on the screen, that chemistry is still there…. It’s so easy. There’s nothing to it. No stress, no effort. You don’t need to put on any special—you don’t need a special mindset to make this work. It works on its own,” he said.
