Sarah Paulson Mourning Loss of Close Friend Diane Keaton: “This Is a Profoundly Sad Time for Me”

Sarah Paulson stepped out Thursday night in Los Angeles for the world premiere of Hulu’s new Ryan Murphy series, All’s Fair, joining her castmates and new crew of close friends Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Teyana Taylor, Niecy Nash-Betts and Naomi Watts at the starry affair.

But it was a bittersweet night for Paulson who is still very much mourning the sudden loss of close friend Diane Keaton. The iconic actress died Saturday at age 79, and it has since been revealed by her family that she died from pneumonia.

Paulson braved the press, and fielded questions about what Keaton meant to her all these years after having met while shooting The Other Sister, the 1999 drama directed by Garry Marshall. The film cast Keaton as the mother of Paulson’s character, and they formed a bond that lasted for more than two decades.

“I was incredibly close to her and this is a profoundly sad time for me,” Paulson told The Hollywood Reporter, electing to keep her comments brief and her favorite memories of Keaton private. “I can’t talk about it in any way that’s articulate other than to say that for all you knew and loved about her as a performer, she was even more as a friend.”

During an interview with Scott Evans for Access Hollywood a few steps away, Paulson got teary and said that she was “the luckiest person in the world to have had her in my life the way that I did.”

Following Keaton’s death, a video clip shared by InStyle went viral as it showed Paulson praising her friend at Chanel’s recent Through Her Lens Luncheon in New York. “She played my mother in a movie in my first sort of studio movie,” Paulson explained of the Marshall film that also starred Juliette Lewis, Tom Skerritt and Giovanni Ribisi. “It was a really thrilling experience and she was the most generous, just playful, fun, alive performer and really taught me the power of beats in a scene. And I was so scared, and she really took me under her wing and we’ve been really good friends ever since. She’s a filmmaker as well. She’s a fashion icon. She’s an absolute iconoclast. And I feel very lucky to call her a dear friend.”

Tributes have been pouring in all week. Keanu Reeves called her “very unique and just a wonderful artist” during an interview with THR. Richard Gere told the Today show that she was “completely original.” Earlier Thursday, Al Pacino shared his memories of Keaton exclusively with Deadline. “When I first heard the news, I was shaken,” he said. “Diane was my partner, my friend, someone who brought me happiness and on more than one occasion influenced the direction of my life. Though over thirty years has past since we were together, the memories remain vivid, and with her passing, they have returned with a force that is both painful and moving.”