[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Mack & Rita.]

From director Katie Aselton, the dramedy Mack & Rita follows 30-year-old self-proclaimed homebody Mack Martin (Elizabeth Lail), who finds herself coming out of a regression pod during the bachelorette weekend for her best friend Carla (Taylour Paige), having suddenly transformed into her 70-year-old future self (Academy Award winner Diane Keaton). Going by Aunt Rita, so as not to attract too much confused attention, the old soul learns to free herself from other people’s expectations and realizes that maybe she wasn’t being as authentically true to herself as she previously thought.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Keaton talked about what made this project special, the fun atmosphere on set, sharing the role with Lail, having a good time with all the women in this cast, the Pilates scene, and Rita’s relationship with Mack’s 30-something neighbor Jack.

Collider: I tremendously enjoyed this movie and thought it was so much fun. You’ve been in this business a long time, but does it ever get old to have a producer want to tailor a project specifically to your strengths? Is that just always cool, no matter how many projects you’ve done?

DIANE KEATON: No, it’s not always cool. But this one was very special.

What was it about this project that ultimately interested you in it? Was there something that you immediately connected to when you read it?

KEATON: Yeah, the women. All the women. There’s the younger women, and then we see life as it goes on. How do you manage that, when you’re older? You can appreciate both sides. So, that’s what I liked.

When you get a project that has been tailored to you, does it feel like there’s an extra responsibility when you read it to say yes to it, or would you have passed on it, if you hadn’t connected to it?

KEATON: I wouldn’t have passed on it, at all, because I liked it. There was a lot to like there, and I thought it was interesting that it would be primarily about both young women and older women, and how they manage and deal with their lives. I just really liked that.

Were there specific qualities of this character that you particularly liked, or certain scenes that you were most looking forward to getting to do?

KEATON: I don’t think about it like that. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t work. But I was surrounded by so many fantastic women, of different ages and everything else, that it was just always wonderful, in some regard. I was really open to that.

I read that you got to read about 20 drafts of this script. Were there a lot of changes made, in that time? Was there anything specific that you wanted to add or change with this?

KEATON: No, not really. Not once we started filming. We just went with it. I’ve been in a lot of movies where everything is so important. That was not what we were doing. We were just enjoying it. We were just part of it. We were just all united together, and everybody was so wonderful

One of the things I most enjoyed about this is the fact that the roles are a bit flipped from what we’re typically used to seeing with a body swap story. I love that as the older character is more fun, more colorful, and has better style. Was that part of the fun in doing something like this?

KEATON: Yes, exactly. You said it best. That really made it work well, combined with everything else.

It’s so interesting to watch both you and Elizabeth Lail in this role because you each feel like you’ve adopted mannerisms of the other. Did you guys talk to each other and work any of that out, or did you just watch each other?

KEATON: All of it. All of the above. We watched each other, but we also were thinking about, how is this gonna work? By the way, it was just relaxed. Not a lot was made of it. I’ve been in movies where you lose yourself, but we didn’t have that. We were all together. Everybody was open to making it work, along with our director (Katie Aselton).

I love that both versions of this character, the younger and the older, each have a pretty awesome group of friends. What was it like to work with this group of women? What did you most enjoy about them? Were there ever scenes that were hard to get through because you were all laughing?

KEATON: That’s what I mean. The whole movie was exactly what you just said. We had a good time with each other. Even if we had a problem, we didn’t make so much of it because it wasn’t like we were shooting some very important, dramatic, incredible movie with all kinds of great camera moves and things like that. We were unified together, and that was really nice.

It feels like it says a lot about who Mack and Rita are, that they can tell the people in their lives what happened to them, and with as wild as it sounds, those loved ones still accept and embrace it and really just try to help. What do you think it is about Mack and Rita that allows for that?

KEATON: I would put them right into the category of being ordinary, but unique, individual women. I wouldn’t make it into something more important. They’re just really loving and caring, and have wonderful relationships with other women.

There’s just something so infectious about the character.

KEATON: To say that word infectious, that’s so sweet of you to say.

What was it like to do the Pilates scene? Had you ever used a Pilates machine like that before? Do you enjoy that sort of physical comedy?

KEATON: Not a machine like that, no. But I really enjoyed it because it was just crazy. I loved it. It could have gone afoul. It could have gone awry, but it didn’t. It was fun. You have to do those kinds of things.

I also really love the relationship that Rita develops with Jack. What did you enjoy about getting to explore that dynamic, working with Dustin Milligan? What was it like to shoot that kiss?

KEATON: It was maybe one of the most enjoyable moments. He was just so great to work with, and so open. He’s gonna have a very big career. I adored him. He was wonderful, all the way through. Everybody liked him.

At this point in your life and career, what gets you to say yes to a project? What has to be there in the project for you to want to do it? Is it just always an instinct for you?

KEATON: It’s always reading the script. You have to get to the end of the script, and then you have to go back and look at it again.

Thank you so much for talking to me about this film. It was delightful to watch, and you were delightful to chat with.

KEATON: Oh, please. You’re delightful.

Mack & Rita is now playing in theaters.