Revealing all in The Whole Nine Yards brought her breakthrough, before a revelatory role in Igby Goes Down proved she could act. Now Amanda Peet is playing Jack Nicholson's girlfriend and watching him fall for her mum (Diane Keaton) in Something's Gotta Give...

The story has autobiographical elements for both writer-director Nancy Meyers and Jack Nicholson - does it for you?

Well, my mom is single and we've both been single at the same time over the last ten years, so I really related to the bond between my character and Diane's. I thought it was quite natural that the daughter would step aside when she sees the little flicker of interest. Other people thought it was a bit strange and wondered if I would feel competitive. But, of course Diane Keaton should get him! She's Diane Keaton. But I related to it because my mom has been through the dating rigmarole.

Is there any difference between working with a male or female director?

No. Nancy has her vision and she's a formidable force to be reckoned with, and that's similar to most of the male directors I've worked with. The only difference is probably inbetween scenes, gossiping with Diane Keaton, Frances McDormand and Nancy Meyers about who's had Botox and who hasn't.

Did you learn anything from Jack?

The thing I noticed about Jack was when we did a reading of the script, just to warm up. There's a whole section of the movie where they're emailing each other and they had a reader who was reading the stage directions, going, "He types, blah blah blah", and Jack was tap-tap-tap [mimes typing] and I was like: 'Oh my God! He's still madly in love with acting!'

He can't even be at a casual read and not be creating the whole thing in his mind. I remember feeling very awed about how much he still seems to be so in love with it, and so dedicated to making everything really real and really spontaneous. That was the other thing was how spontaneous they were - it's all about surprising your scene partner when you're off camera, whether it's appropriate or not!

Do you get a good range of scripts, or are good female roles thin on the ground?

It's very tough. There's a very small group of elite actresses who are my age, who people want to work with. It's not easy to get a good job with good actors. I auditioned for this movie eight times and that's no joke. I definitely think that the movies pander to the young, 18-year-old mall mentality, which I think is one of the reasons this movie is so exciting. It's very exciting to see Diane be sexy and romantic with Jack, and have them be in these dynamic roles and in these incredibly sexy scenes. It's ridiculous that everybody thinks that that doesn't play, when it clearly does.