What Annette Bening Thought Of Warren Beatty When She First Met Him

As Hollywood legend goes, Warren Beatty fell in love with Annette Bening almost immediately when he and director Barry Levinson were casting "Bugsy." Beatty finished a lunch meeting with Bening and told Levinson, "I love her and I'm going to marry her." 

And marry her he did, eventually raising a family of four children, Stephen, Benjamin, Isabel, and Ella. But what was Bening's first impression of the longtime movie star with a reputation for being a ladies' man?

"I remember thinking 'Wow, this guy is so smart and so sharp and funny, but more — just articulate,'" Bening told People. "He was very talkative. He was very passionate about the movie that he was about to make. He had a lot to say — and he was charming, for sure."

Bening admitted that being a mom was something she always wanted, but, now that her and Beatty's children are grown, she has that empty nest feeling.

"[Having children] was something I always wanted to do, ever since I was a little kid, the minute I could start babysitting, like 12 or 13, I was the neighborhood babysitter," Bening said. "Sometimes it's hard for me to let go and just remember, oh that's not my job anymore."

She added: "I'm so proud of these adult children, who aren't children, but they're my kids. They're all so different and they're all out there discovering themselves and their voices. We think we're there to teach them, and of course, what we realize is that that they teach us everything."