Why Diane Keaton Was 'Humiliated' By Her Kissing Scenes With Jack Nicholson

The late Diane Keaton once said there's nothing quite like kissing her leading men in movies, especially if that leading man was her "5 Flights Up" co-star Morgan Freeman. While most actors tend to feel uneasy about kissing their co-stars (others simply refuse to do it), Keaton considered it one of the greater, and more fun, aspects of the job. Among her list of leading men, Keaton didn't hesitate to name Freeman as her best-ever on-screen kiss. Also up there was Jack Nicholson, although kissing him was admittedly slightly more awkward. The two famously starred in the 2003 romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give," where they had to film a lot of makeout scenes, something both Keaton and Nicholson found sort of embarrassing — according to Keaton, at least.

"Jack and I were humiliated most of the time," the star told the Los Angeles Times in 2003. "There was so much kissing and all this time in bed. We felt so much terror about being so exposed, and we got to be so close because of that." In the film, Nicholson plays a senior playboy who unexpectedly falls in love with Keaton, the mother of his young girlfriend, after suffering a heart attack. It also featured Keanu Reeves as a 30-something-year-old doctor who somehow ends up dating Keaton's character (they also kissed!), and Amanda Peet as Keaton's on-screen daughter. 

Nevertheless, Keaton loved locking lips with Nicholson. "Kissing Jack in 'Something's Gotta Give' was so powerful because I got to play a woman my age who was falling, seriously falling for the first time in her life," she said in an interview years later (via X). "I had to have that first kiss... where I grab him and I take him in my hands and I just kiss him hard." She quipped, "Now can you imagine doing that with Jack Nicholson?" It was, according to her, fantastic.

Working with Jack Nicholson was, overall, a memorable experience for Diane Keaton, who wasn't shy about expressing her admiration for the legendary actor. "I've had the biggest crush on him for 20 years," Keaton, who passed away at age 79 in 2025, told the Daily Mail in 2004 (via The Standard). "How can you not, even now? He's irresistible." He may not have seen her that way, but Nicholson was equally enamored with Keaton and loved having her as his leading lady. Nicholson once told reporters, "The least of my problems [while doing this film] was making it believable that I was attracted to Diane Keaton" (via The Sydney Morning Herald).

But despite their chemistry, both on- and off-screen, Keaton said there's no way she and Nicholson would fall for each other in real life. "I don't think it's even a remote possibility," she stressed in her conversation with the LA Times. For one, "I can't see Jack going out with someone in their 50s. Also, we are both too set in our ways," she added. "And he's too huge, a myth, a legend. There's no way."

Nicholson had to agree, if only for the simple reason he and Keaton couldn't be more incompatible. "Believe me, Diane and I are very different with one another than these two characters are on screen," he explained, noting Keaton often liked to joke about how much she found him disgusting. But it's clear they adored each other, and for Keaton, there's no question which kiss she enjoyed more between him and Keanu Reeves. "Jack, without a doubt," the film icon answered, according to The Himalayan Times.