You Need A Little Magic In Life

She’s been acting since she was seven years old, but Diane Lane had a very different dream. The Hollywood star tells Juliet Rieden about her wild childhood, missing her mum and playing a baddie in the new season of House of Cards.

Diane Lane is giggling. She’s just remembered a particular night she spent at the White House a few years back. Barack Obama was still President and Diane was one of the guests at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This is the glittering fundraising bash where journalists mix with politicians, senators and specially invited celebrities, and the President gives a usually pretty funny speech.

“When the cast members from House of Cards arrived it was like royalty had walked in, because these people [the politicos] are so in love with themselves and they think that all the plot points are really about them,” Diane explains, still laughing. “It was the penultimate one in the Obama administration and a good time was had by all. It made the Oscars feel like a puppet show.”

Diane was super excited to meet Barack and Michelle, but she sensed something else was going on for the other guests. “For these people [working in the White House], the actors are not playing characters; this is real life. They’re really invested.”

The fact that most of the key characters in the show are self-serving, ruthless and duplicitous at best and mendacious and murderous at worst, didn’t seem to bother this political clique, but it’s an irony not lost on Diane. “They were just excited to have a show about them. It may be dark but they can’t turn away,” she says.

Hop forward a few years and Diane is now one of that hallowed cast. “I never had any imagination that I would ever be asked to be part of that show at that time,” she adds.

The 53-year-old star of stage and screen was hurriedly hired, along with Hollywood’s Greg Kinnear, as part of the revamp of series six of the hit Netflix drama when Kevin Spacey was sacked following allegations of sexual misconduct last year.