When
I first saw Cameron Diaz, it was opposite Ewan McGregor in A LIFE
LESS ORDINARY. Although the
movie was a mixed bag, I loved the chemistry between the two of
them. After that, Cameron
seemed to really find her niche in THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
She worked steadily after in films such as ANY GIVEN SUNDAY,
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and of course, what she is best known for,
CHARLIE’S ANGELS and SHREK, both spawning sequels, with SHREK THE
THIRD coming next year. And
this week you can check her out in the romantic comedy THE
HOLIDAY opposite Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black.
I
got the chance to talk to Cameron at the Four Seasons in
Beverly Hills
and when she came in, she had dark hair; she looks good as a
brunette. She is an
interesting woman who seems to have really found herself throughout
the years starting with THE MASK. She
is charming and very pretty, and she loves to laugh.
I was really surprised at how free she was yet she chose her
words carefully when it came to her personal life.
She also spoke very highly of her co-stars in THE
HOLIDAY
, and especially her director, Nancy Meyers.
Cameron
Diaz
What
made you “walk away” from a successful movie career for awhile
after CHARLIE’S ANGELS?
You
know, I’m not really in any race with anyone.
I’m not really in competition with anyone.
So I mean that in a way that I don’t think my career or my
life is a competition, do you know what I mean?
I don’t feel like I had to sort of be somewhere for any
other reason other than I wanted to be there and I just sort of
hadn’t found anything that really made me really want to jump into
it.
To
go back to work…?
To
go back to work, yeah because as we do when were sort of on the
beginning of our career, and were kind of like, I was learning about
filmmaking and acting and wanting to sort of just keep the ball in
motion I did film after film after film after film which was [an]
amazing experience and I so thankful for it but I got to a point
that I was sort of like; I don’t have a house, I don’t have any
place to put my bags, I haven’t been home, I haven’t seen my
family, I have no friends you know what I mean.
And there was a part of my life that was really going strong
but I didn’t have this other aspect of my life so much like Amanda
[Laughing] but not in the love aspect of it but in life you just
have to have a balance and so I just kind of took a little slow down
for a little while which it’s been nice.
I probably should pick it back up but I really like it.
You
have no regrets then?
No,
I don’t believe in regret. I
honestly do not believe in regret.
There’s, I mean, you have to… I’ve always felt that the
movies that I’ve made were the movies I was meant to make and the
movies that other people make are the movies they are meant to make
and if I see something that I admire, I admire it for what that
person has done, but I don’t get jealous or I don’t get envious.
I don’t believe in envy, at all.
I don’t envy somebody else’s life or what their
accomplishments, try to concentrate on my own so…
When
you went away, so to speak, from your career, you still stayed this
sort of figure in the news constantly…
That’s
one of the reasons why I went away. [Laughing] I thought that if I
didn’t do as many films then they would have to leave me alone
because my mentality about this business is that this is my job.
I’m talking to y’all because this is my job and this is
an exchange that all of us have, you know, we have an understanding
about and consented, you know. And
I felt like, you know, if I just don’t make movies then they
wouldn’t have any right to my life.
And of course, that’s not the mentality of “that” media
so. I realized, you know
what, I’m not gonna be… if I make a movie or not make a movie
they’re still gonna be there, so I may as well do what I love to
doing and keep making movies. So
I don’t have any plans not to make movies.
Or
become a recluse?
Or
become a recluse… no, I like life too much.
The house is too small. [Laughing]
You
say you’re somewhat like Amanda in terms of what you discover that
“Live for today” philosophy which she doesn’t understand at
all which she comes to the conclusion it’s not a bad thing to
have. Is that the
conclusion that you’ve come to, just to live for the moment?
I’ve
always lived that way, yeah. I’m
pretty much… I’m terrible at making plans. [Laughing] I remember
when I first started doing press junkets, my first, at THE MASK.
Every single person asked me, and I think it was because I
was new…
We
didn’t know who you were.
Yeah,
exactly; so they were like, “Ten years from now, what kind of
movies do you see yourself doing?” and I’d be like… “I
don’t know.” I’m like, I don’t know, “…what do you wanna
be doing?” and I was like, “Well, whatever I’m doing ten years
from now, I don’t know if I’ll be making movies.
I don’t know if I’ll be doing something completely
different. Whatever it
is ten years from now, I just hope… I want to be happy.
Period. And I
don’t know if it will be making movies that make me happy or if
it’s… whatever it is, you know… I don’t know.
Milking a cow!” Kind
of on a milking a cow trip right now.
I don’t know why?
Where
did that come from?
I
don’t know. I just
think of… for some reason I have this imagery of like, five
o’clock in the morning, this like, sort of meditatively [pretends
to milk a cow] like in meditation.
I don’t know. [Laughter]
Well,
it’s been ten… twelve years.
How happy are you? And
are you surprised you’re where you are?
Well,
I have no idea where I’m at… [Laughing] I am very happy, I
can’t complain, um, although I do. [Laughing] But over all I’m
very happy with everything, you know, life is a journey.
You know what I mean? My
life is no different than anybody else’s life.
And like, some days I’ve got it all figured out and some
days I’m like, what the hell is going on, you know what I mean?
It’s just like everybody else.
You know, that’s the human experience.
The experiences… the term of your life may be different and
what you go through to have that experience may be different but
it’s all… experiences is the same.
Is
there any particular scene, any particular line that really
resonated with you in terms of relationships you’ve been in, are
in?
Not
for me personally as far as nothing relates to me in these women’s
relationships to my own. Other
than I know that, it’s sort of, like I said, the circumstances are
always different but I think that we’ve all spent either too much
time in a relationship or not enough time in a relationship.
You know what I mean? That’s
what I think is so great with this film, it’s so relatable.
You know, we’ve all been through it.
We’ve all had both of these relationships.
And what it comes down to I think, is that these women have
not taken the time to get to know who they are.
You
know, Amanda can’t even cry, that means she’s completely cut off
from her emotions. That
means she probably doesn’t ever ask for anything or knows how to
really give anything over because if she connects to that emotion
she’s gonna lose everything that she’s been trying to hold
together. And Iris
doesn’t value herself; she doesn’t know what she has to offer.
She doesn’t know what she’s worth, you know.
So she let’s somebody walk all over her all the time.
And those situations I think are, you know, that’s the
human experience of traveling through this crazy journey of life,
trying to figure out how to make love work.
And
the foundation I think that, love [works] the best from what I’ve
seen as examples as well as experiences, you have to really love
yourself and know what your worth, what your capable of giving, what
you want to receive and know how to be brave enough to be open and
to trust people and trust yourself to be able to give and receive
those things. So… and
that’s what I love about the journey in this film.
Obviously it’s a romantic comedy, it’s light, funny,
it’s humorous but I think it’s also very honest.
And I think that’s why it works on so many levels.
It’s not this thing where you’re going, “Oh… That
doesn’t happen!” we don’t end on this movie with these people
standing on an alter together.
You
don’t pan off the wedding ring up to, “I do.” [Laughing]
There’s still the question there at the end of the day.
You know, at the end of the film you go, “Will this
relationship actually work between these two people?”
It’s not about the end result with them, it’s the fact
that these people decided to be open enough to take the chance to
take the journey of finding out whether or not they’re love can
actually work for any amount of time.
And I like that because it’s not unrealistic, it’s just
what we do everyday. You’re
just seeing how it goes.
There
is a very good thing about how Jude Law’s character deals with
being with a woman who’s successful with her own company.
Well
I think that success is all relative.
I mean it means something different to everyone.
I think that with Amanda, yes, she’s certainly a
successful… you know, she makes a good living, she has a big house
in Brentwood and we all know how expensive that is. [Laughing]
She’s got a great wardrobe, she owns her own company.
But I think most importantly to her is that she’s good at
what she does and she loves what she does.
She’s actually successful in something that she loves doing
and she’s good at it.
So
to me, that is… that’s something that I consider, what is
successful; now if you do that, you don’t always make a lot of
money at doing that, you know what I mean?
Like there are people who just do what they love doing and
they’re good at it but they don’t make a lot of money at it.
That could be just as… that could cause as much problems
with somebody who makes a lot of money doing something they hate
doing, you know, they might be envious or feel inadequate to the
person who’s actually accomplishing what they want, you know.
So, you can’t say… in what’s sort of going to be that
wedge in a relationship.
But
certainly I think that men have a need, an innate need, you know,
its breed into them that they have to provide.
And then today’s society, it’s about how much you make
and they feel… they work constantly.
That’s their priority, to be responsible for that and I
think that the ball is in the mans court in that case, as far as
whether or not he allows that aspect of life to be something that
gets in the way with a woman. Because
a woman actually, I don’t believe she should hide who she is, or
lessen herself…
Or
feel guilty?
Or
feel guilty of hide any of that.
She should be who she is and find a man who is strong enough
to handle that within himself.
Right.
Just
because a woman’s also… just because Amanda’s successful
doesn’t mean she’s a difficult person that man has to learn how
to handle a woman that’s SO successful because it means something
different about her character that she’s a handful, or something
like that. Like I said,
I think it’s about the man and his own… within himself, whether
or not he can handle it.
I
don’t know, I thought Amanda was kind of a difficult person,
she’s…
She’s
slightly neurotic.
Yeah.
In
some areas but not like… she’s not bad she’s just…
She’s
not perfect.
Yeah,
she’s not perfect. But
I don’t think she’s like… difficult.
There’s no signs other than… she’s pretty open.
The problem with her is that she’s not ready to connect.
You know, so she goes, “Come on in!
Okay, goodbye!” [Laughing]
“Oh, alright, come on! Um,
no, no, no!” and that’s frustrating, you know what I mean, but
that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that she’s
successful in what she does. It
just means… [Laughing] she’s unsuccessful at what she does as
far as relationships go.
Do
you think she has a “sixth sense” about Ed Burns character and
how he’d cheat on her? Do
you think women have a sixth sense?
I
believe women know, for sure. For
sure, I think, I think when you’re connected to somebody it’s
hard… there’s no way you can’t tell when something’s off,
you know? But as far as
that goes with they’re relationship, I think that it’s not
working on so many levels that, that’s not it.
Infidelity…
Exactly,
that’s not it at all. You
know, it’s just, like I said, she doesn’t cry.
She’s clearly not connected.
There’s no communication whatsoever.
What
made you want to do this movie?
Nancy
Meyers!
Was
it?
Yeah,
Nancy… she’s the raddest. I
love that woman. She’s
so smart; she’s so funny, she’s so talented.
The vision… this movie is her vision from beginning to end.
You know what I mean? It’s,
from the first letter on the first page, to the last letter on the
roll of the credits on the screen, know what I mean, it’s all her.
And I think she’s just so good.
She’s just the best at what she does.
Did
she give you the script or did she just call up and say, “I’ve
got an idea…”
No,
she had finished the script, actually I read the script.
Can
you tell us what’s going on with the next SHREK?
SHREK
THE THIRD will be coming out next year and I will be happy to talk
to you about it then. [Laughing]
cause I’m not sure how much… first off I don’t know a lot
about it, I only know my part of it.
This film, you know, we do in sections I don’t really ever
see the other part of the film.
But I know the storyline; it’s a lot of fun.
You guys will have a really great time with it.
They’re so great over there, they just keep stepping it up
every time. It’s a lot
of fun.
Is
it weird to you that your best known role is a big green ogre?
[Laughing]
Well, in certain circles it is.
In the three to ten year olds they know me… but, no, I like
it. I love Fiona.
What
about when people step away from their career and then return with a
new image… and I was thinking, with you and Kate in this movie,
Kate since she’s been a teenager has always been this Oscar
nominated, serious actress even though she’s blonde and pretty and
you’ve always been the comedienne and looked upon as the bubbly…
do you think you are undervalued in a way… put on a box and…
I
don’t think there is anything wrong with that. [Laughing] I
don’t think that there is, I mean I’m not going… I’m happy
with the things I’ve accomplished.
You know, I’m not ashamed for being a happy, bubbly, funny
person. I think that’s
just as valid as being the dark, brooding, tortured, Oscar nominated
one, not that that’s what Kate is, I don’t think that’s what
she is at all. But
certainly if you want to start putting people on boxes, I don’t
have a problem with that, I think that it’s great and I don’t
think that I’m undervalued because I think that whatever we all
offer… I’m surprised at actually that people would want me…
I’m honored, I’m really just honored to actually be in the
position that I am and that I get to share that with people so I’m
not going out there going, “I need…”
The
Halle Berry or Charlize Theron transformation role where…
You
know, I like to explore a lot of different things and done a lot of
different movies and not all of them have been successful in a way
that the ones I’m known for mostly… you just, you just do what
you do… I do it for myself. You
know, and movies like this I do for the audience, I want people to
go and have a good time and laugh and enjoy it, or else I wouldn’t
make them.
If
you had to trade lives with anyone, who would it be and why?
Um,
I don’t know. That’s
a tough question. I’ve
been asked it a lot. Every
time, I want it to be somebody different just for once.
But it always seems that the person that jumps into my mind
is Jack Black. [Laughing] I think, “…well, who do I want to
be?” and Jack’s there in a blue leotard and a mustache and I’m
like, “What would it be like to be that guy?” I don’t know…
I’d like to know.
Jude
Law or Jack Black or a mixture?
Mixture
is awesome. They’re
both such lovely men by the way; couldn’t be two nicer guys, and
funny, charming and down to earth and professional, respectable and
just awesome people. So
they’re great on their own so a mixture of the two… forget about
it. It’d be crazy!
[Laughing] I don’t know if the world could handle that.
What’s
the best present that you ever got?
A
can of whoop ass. [Laughing] Have you seen those cans of “Whoop
Ass”?
Whoop
ass.
Yeah!
[Laughing]
Let
me know what you think. Send
questions or comments to jimmyo@joblo.com.