Thankfully, we had the good fortune to catch up with Keaton at the film's recent press junket where the legendary actress shared her thoughts on everything from spending money and kissing Ted Danson to having fun on set and the challenges young actresses face in today's Hollywood.

Diane Keaton on whether all of the girls had fun on-set:

"We did. You know, we were also working in Shreveport [laughs], so it was a different experience because it was sort of like we were actually in an atmosphere that was really what the story was about. A bunch of - three women - unlikely friends thrust together - the fact that they were all victims of the system. And I think that it speaks so much to what's going on right now. It's really - I mean obviously this is a fun movie. It's not taking any of this really seriously, but at the same time, it's talking about all those people who are the sub-prime problems, losing their homes -- like Katie's character, where she wants to see the world but doesn't have the opportunity. And Nina is the kind of person, that Queen Latifah's playing, who has to raise these kids and has no money. We're like forgotten, invisible women. And I feel like, with that in mind, it's a very topical movie. Obviously it's a caper, but at the same time it's what a lot of people are going through right now. And it's also very interesting to me because it's a political year. We're going to elect a president, and it's just so interesting. So the movie was interesting to me, and I enjoyed that part of it - what was kind of underlying what it was about."

Keaton on the notion in the film that money can buy happiness:

"We're dependent on the system and on the policies that we've all grown accustomed to... and everything's sort of shaky now, with the talk of possible recession. It scares people and particularly those people... Security and opportunity, and in the case of my character, she gets a little bit carried away; like really loses herself behind the cash, which is also one of the temptations, of course. And then she sort of learns a lesson, because I think the most extraordinary thing that happens in my character's life is that she has this college education, she's married to a man who was supposed to be just fine, he gets downsized suddenly because the company doesn't want to pay for him anymore, and their whole life turns into shambles, and she's going lose her house. So it's terrifying."

On how she made her character sympathetic:

"I think they're completely sympathetic, and I never thought about whether I was likable or not, because guess what? If that happened to me - and you know I'm a woman of a certain age and people just think you're supposed to just roll over and give up with life - I think, ‘Hey, you know what? Forget it...’ You can take hold of your life. You can still have adventure. You can still find friends in the most unlikely situations, and you can make something of your life. It's not over. Life is an adventure. It doesn't have to just be like, ‘Oh God, it's over. I got my liberal arts degree, and nobody wants me and I can't help my husband.’ To me, all she ever aspired to was to be in the country club set, and what was that? That was so lame, she needed something to shake up her life. She needed to find out -- it makes her more empathetic because now her life has expanded to the realm of seeing how extraordinary these people are who she got together with - these two other women who she never would have known, from different generations, different walks of life."

On whether she had fun working with Ted Danson:

"Oh yeah. It’s a shame he’s married. I really liked kissing him. I always like kissing men. It’s my only opportunity in a movie role, so I really liked that scene and I was really happy when they stuck that in there. I think Ted wanted to have that scene between us in the middle of the movie, so they wrote that scene later, and I’m really glad they did."

Diane Keaton on the pressures a young actress faces today:

"Of course the landscape of their life is completely different than when I was coming up with Annie Hall or some of those early movies like The Godfather. At that time, the press was not that prevalent. It was a very different thing. It was fashionable at the time to stay away from it; less is more was the attitude of the time. You only did certain things, very rarely. So I believe Katie [Holmes] and Mandy [Moore] and even Dana [Queen Latifah] are thrust into a world where you really have to be more than just an actress. Particularly, of course, Katie, because it's kind of like movie royalty. It’s like Grace Kelly or something. Every time you go out there, you’re observed and scrutinized, and you have to handle it, and you take on so much more than the fun and the adventure of being an actress. I think Katie’s really fascinating because she takes it very seriously, from what I can see and observe, more of an approach like that music thing was there all the time, but quietly. She’d quietly be going off into some world that was like who that person was, Jackie. So observationally, it’s incredibly more complex to be a movie actress now. It’s more challenging because your life is like [an explosion]. And what about the f**king - excuse me - I mean the Internet. The fact that you’re there and suddenly there’s pictures there and people are talking about you all the time, and you have to be strong. It builds character in some ways, if you can hack it, if you can handle it. That’s the way I feel about it."

On how many scripts these days have strong female lead characters:

"The kind of roles that I get now are frequently - it used to be about 10 or 15 years ago, the over the shoulder wife, that’s the role I got. Now I do a lot of mothers. I’m frequently playing a mother, which is incredibly fascinating to me. But that’s why this was fabulous, I wasn’t playing a mother. I was actually engineering this plot. That was great fun. I became a criminal, which is great to play, and it’s a buddy picture. It is a rarity. It’s a rarity on a lot of levels."

On working with Queen Latifah:

"Queen is sort of a Renaissance woman. She does a little bit of everything and she does it very well. And she’s a dynamic personality. And she’s beautiful. You can’t beat it. I went and saw her act. She was at Royce Hall and I saw her sing. That was an absolute revelation to me. I’ve seen her sing in movies but she can sing anything and she’s brilliant. She takes over the audience. She talks, and loose and free and fun. She’s astonishing. She can do anything."

Keaton on what she'd do if she happened on a lot of money - save it or spend it?

"I’d spend it. Are you kidding? There are so many things I have in my mind. I know what I would do. I’d buy up historic homes all over the United States and open them up to the public and restore them so that the public could be more aware of the treasures we have throughout the United States. I would love nothing more than to do that for the rest of my life, if I could. If I could earn a living doing that, if I came into a lot of money, if I won the lottery, that’s what I would do."

Keaton on how she felt about Jimmy Stewart's house being torn down:

"Oh, that was a tragedy. I bought this house, Dexter was like 3, and we moved into this house on Roxbury in Beverly Hills where all these people had lived before. I bought a house that everybody wanted to tear down. It wasn’t a famous house but half of it was a Wallace-Neff house, and on that street, though, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, at the time the biggest stars in the world, Ira Gershwin, Rosemary Clooney, all lived on Roxbury north of Sunset. It was like this community place. So Jimmy Stewart had this incredible Tudor house on the corner of Roxbury and he actually died the day I moved in. It was so sad. A year later, the family had to sell the house. You know, people don’t have endless reams of money to keep these things going. You know what it costs. It was on a huge double lot. Honestly, it was on an acre and a half of land on a flat plot, it was amazing. And a year later they started tearing it down. I remember going in there with Dexter, my daughter, and sneaking in and saving tiles. I still have them. It was such a tragedy because it could have been restored. It could have worked for any family. It was plenty big. Nobody wanted to take on the task of doing the work that was required. I’m happy to do the work and have families buy these things up and live in them. They’re treasures."

Diane Keaton on what she hopes audiences will take away from Mad Money:

"For me, just the recognition of female bonding, what women can do and also recognizing there are a lot of people who live these lives. They’re not the subject of movies very often. I feel like that alone speaks well of the movie."