Diane Lane’s Response to Learning She Was Matthew McConaughey's First Crush Is Priceless

You never forget your first crush. For us it was fellow first-grader Christopher Marino (and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire). For Matthew McConaughey it was Diane Lane.

The 49-year-old Oscar winner reminisced about his unrequited love for Lane, who starred alongside him in the new film Serenity, during an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the movie’s premiere.

“I had a crush on her since a film she was in, Lonesome Dove,” he remembered of the 1989 miniseries in which Lane starred alongside Anjelica Huston, Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones and Danny Glover. “That may have been…that was almost pre-teen for me.”

McConaughey went on to explain how it felt, 30 years later to be working with the 54-year-old actress, saying, “So then I get to work with her—she looks about the same as she did then, and she’s one of our great actresses.” We’ll have to agree with you there.

Lane caught wind of the exchange and told the publication she was gobsmacked by his crush and hoped to “live up to” McConaughey’s preteen idea of her.

When she was asked if she had any idea about his crush prior to filming the upcoming dark thriller she proved she has impeccable willpower and responded, “I think I blocked it out. I don’t think he lied—I think he did say that to me, day one—and I just had whiteout.”

So how did she proceed? “I couldn’t cope,” she joked. “I said, ‘I’m gonna see a character. Thank you for the compliment. I’m dying, and…love you, too, babe.’” Spoken like a true champion, Diane.

Serenity hits theaters today and we’re tempted to look for signs of this little crush on-screen. Who’s with us?