Diane Lane opens up about painful childhood memories: 'It’s always your mother, right?'

Hollywood acting icon Diane Lane reveals she tapped into some painful childhood memories for her latest project, FX's limited series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.

"Knowing somebody’s core wounds is important when you're going to play them," Lane told
Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host RuPaul on Wednesday when asked how she prepared to play her Feud character, NYC socialite Slim Keith.

She described being "fascinated about how she had this steel will, she would not let Truman Capote take her down. She learned that strength of character by not letting her father force her to choose against her mother when she was growing up," which Lane felt is a "very tough position to be in" as a child.

"I know what it's like," she admitted, because "I had that happen to me in my childhood."

Lane had a tumultuous childhood that she has glancingly discussed during her time in the public eye. Lane is only 59, but she's been acting for over 50 years; her first role on stage came when she was just 6 years old.

"There will be a book," she joked to RuPaul.

In a June profile for The Guardian, Lane discussed joining the experimental theatre group La MaMa in New York at 7 years old ("it definitely got me a seat in therapy"), performing Chekhov alongside Meryl Streep at 12, and how she ran away to Los Angeles at only 15, before being illegally whisked back to Georgia by her mother, who her father, the custody-holder at the time, then sued.

She empathized with the "shocking" position her character Keith was put in as a child after watching her own parents battle for custody over her, the actress told RuPaul.

"It's always your mother, right?" she remarked.

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans chronicles the bitter falling out between Truman Capote and several post-war high-society New York socialites, who the In Cold Blood novelist allegedly used as models for characters in his scandalous unpublished novel, Answered Prayers. When a chapter of the book titled "La Côte Basque 1965" was published in a 1975 issue of Esquire, several public figures who could easily identify themselves in Capote's characters broke off contact and even swore revenge.

As Slim Keith — who palled around with William Powell and Randolph Hearst, married Howard Hawks, and lived with Ernest Hemingway in Cuba — Lane plays a major role in the miniseries. But she's only one among a pantheon of stars; the ensemble also includes Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, Chloë Sevigny as C.Z. Guest, Calista Flockhart as Lee Radziwill (mother-in-law to RHONY star Carole Radziwill), Demi Moore as Ann Woodward, and Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson.

Rounding out the cast are Tom Hollander as Capote, the late Treat Williams as Babe's husband Bill Paley, Ryan Murphy regular Jessica Lange as Capote's mother Lillie Mae Faulk, and Russell Tovey as John O'Shea.

The series earned five nominations at the 2024 Emmy Awards, including a directing nod for Gus Van Sant, Supporting Actor for Williams, Lead Actress for Watts, Lead Actor for Hollander, and last but not least, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Lane. It's the actress' third nomination after nods in 1989 for Lonesome Dove and in 2011 for Cinema Verite.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

"I channeled a lot of my mother’s strength to be able to pull off what was asked of me in this writing, because it was tough stuff,” Lane told Variety in June.

Lane considered the rest of the Feud cast "siblings just by association" before they all even met, she told RuPaul. Asked if she was friends with any of the swans before commencing production, Lane said, "No, we had so many close associations.... When you're in this business, as you know, it's kind of like a big circus family."

She also touched on her father Burton Eugene Lane's connection to the Hollywood generation that preceded her own. Her father was "a teacher of acting," she began, noting that "he and John Cassavetes — in fact, God bless Gena Rowlands, may she rest in peace — they were all buddies in the ’50s."

Lane also recalled a hilarious incident that left her father "mortified," when her Six Pack costar Kenny Rogers chartered a private helicopter to pick Lane and her father up from New York and take them to a concert of his in New Jersey.

"'I'm not going to get in a helicopter. We'll take the train, whatever you need!'" she recalls him saying to Rogers, explaining that her father "had been a cab driver" and was afraid to fly. The singer slyly responded, "'You don't understand, if I don't spend the money I can't keep it. I have to fly people in,'" Lane said.

Lane vies for an Emmy on Sept. 15 at when the awards are broadcast at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.