cameron diaz movies
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 Chapter 4 - Leading Stars of The Holiday
“The wind…it's what makes it so warm at this time of year. Legend has it, when the Santa Anas blow, anything can happen” - Miles (Jack Black)
In The Holiday, Meyers has fashioned a true ensemble, pairing two of today's most appealing actresses, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, with two equally charismatic leading men, Jude Law and Jack Black, and a strong supporting cast that includes Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell and Shannyn Sossamon.
Diaz brings a rich history of comedic and dramatic work to her portrayal of Amanda Woods, with credits ranging from her star-making turn in My Best Friend's Wedding, to There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Gangs of New York, In Her Shoes and many other successful films over the past decade.
“Cameron is a real comedienne and one of the great rewards of working with her is how much she makes me laugh,” says Meyers. “She is great with dialogue and is really adept at physical humor. She sometimes reminded me of Goldie Hawn, whom I love. She has very similar comedic instincts.” (Hawn notably starred in one of Meyers' earlier successes Private Benjamin).
For her co-star, Law, working with Diaz was pure delight. “Cameron is like having the sun on set every day,” he beams. “She understands the world of this kind of film so well. I learned a great deal just by watching her.”
Law and Winslet were new to the genre of romantic comedy. “The way Nancy breaks down the beats of a scene, the timing of a joke or a reveal, is kind of a science,” says Law, who has earned Oscar® nominations in the past for his performances in Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley. “It's hard work, but she makes it look easy.”
Winslet heartily concurs: “Oh yes. The flow and rhythm of Nancy's writing is incredibly precise.”
The Holiday marked a welcome change of pace for Winslet, who earned her first Academy Award® nomination for Sense and Sensibility. Her 1997 performance in Titanic made her, at age 22, the youngest actress ever to be twice nominated. She was nominated again for Iris, and then again for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “I've spent a lot of time in my career wearing corsets,” she says, “and am proud to be part of a contemporary comedy playing an English person.”
Being asked to be funny was another new experience. “The biggest reward for me on this film was to be in the middle of a scene and hear ten people at the video monitor burst out laughing,” she smiles.
But the character of Iris has several facets, all of which Winslet exploited to the fullest. “There were times when Kate brought me to tears,” says Meyers. “She can reveal herself in so many ways, and all of them are honest.”
To complement her two sterling leading ladies, Meyers took great care in choosing their romantic interests. “I wanted Graham to be complicated, but not in the normal way. Hopefully, his issues are unexpected,” she says. “Jude is very right for this part. He is also wonderful with Cameron, and the work he does in this film is quite different from anything I've seen him do before.”
The choice of Jack Black to play Miles was more than just a stroke of bold casting on Meyers' part, she admits. “When I saw Jack in School of Rock, I fell in love with him,” she says. “I wrote this part for him because I adored him so much from that movie. But I never thought he would say yes because it's a very different role for him - it's a love story.”
In truth, Black was surprised when he was approached. “When I first heard that Nancy had written a part with me in mind, I thought, really? Have you heard my band Tenacious D?” he laughs, “because I've got a lot of raunchy humor in my film history. But Nancy said, `I know what you do and I like it.' So I was like, `all right, good, let's do it.' I can't believe I actually got paid to stare at Kate Winslet from really close up and watch her kick-ass acting.”
Meyers cast Amanda and Iris' ex-boyfriends with similar care, honing in on Edward Burns for Ethan and Rufus Sewell for Jasper. Interestingly, Burns had previously directed and starred opposite Diaz in the romantic comedy She's the One. In The Holiday, their relationship is far less cordial, however, “Cameron gets to punch me twice,” Burns laughs. “I guess you have to be in really good shape to do a romantic comedy.”
Diaz admits that she was in rare fighting form for her scenes with Burns. “I don't think I've ever had as much fun playing a break-up,” she says. “Eddie was perfect as Ethan - dry and deadpan. I didn't want our scene to end. But Ethan deserved to be punched in the face. His actions were beyond questionable. They needed to be called out. And, believe me, I called him out.”
Diaz enjoyed the opportunity to work with Law in a change of pace role for him. “We're used to seeing Jude's more dramatic side and, even here, he brings a certain weight to Graham. But he also brings great humor. He is so funny and completely charming.”
Though Winslet and Sewell have been friends for a decade, they had never worked together before Meyers cast Sewell as Jasper. Acting opposite his longtime friend was all he had hoped for. “One of the best things about getting to play Jasper is the fact that all my scenes are with Kate,” says Sewell. “All you have to do is look at her and you have the scene.”
Winslet and Law recently co-starred in the drama All the King's Men, and she was thrilled that he would be playing her brother in The Holiday. “Our relationship is a bit like that anyway,” she said. “So it was perfect casting."
One of the plum supporting roles in The Holiday is Arthur, a wise and winsome screenwriter from Hollywood's Golden Age. Everyone Arthur encounters in the film regards him with respect - and that extended to the actor who played him, an equally seasoned professional with a prolific resume of great films including Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll, Arthur Miller's The Misfits, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and The Magnificent Seven, as well as stage dramas including Williams' “The Rose Tattoo” and “Camino Real.” “Eli's autobiography came out about the time that I was casting the movie, and I saw him being interviewed,” recalls Meyers. “That was it. He is in many ways exactly the character I wrote. He's had a phenomenal career. He's worked with many of the great legends. He's 90 years old and a true Hollywood person. He understood perfectly the kind of man I was writing about.”
“Nancy has given me rich things to do and say in this movie,” said Wallach. “In an early scene, Iris says to me, `If you're not busy, would you like to have dinner with me?' And I say, `Busy? Honey, I haven't been busy since 1978.' You know how painful it is for an old screenwriter to say that? Nancy put her finger right on the essence of my character. She's devoted to the craft, she's challenging, and she doesn't let you get away with anything.”
Besides being ideal casting for the role of Arthur Abbott, Wallach's personal anecdotes, encompassing over six decades of colorful professional experiences, were an inspiration to the cast and crew. Law especially appreciated the legendary actor's generosity when he was preparing for a drunk scene in The Holiday. Wallach shared with him several tips John Huston had given him for playing drunk when they were working together on The Misfits.”
Wallach also bonded with Jack Black. “I had a lot of fun with Jack,” says Wallach. “We teased one another with our own little endings to scenes, because whenever they'd say `Cut,' Jack would just keep on talking.”
Observing the 90-year-old actor was particularly rewarding for Black, who explains that, “watching Eli reminds you that, to be good at acting, you have to let yourself be a little kid in a way.”
In The Holiday, the veteran screenwriter Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach) recalls writing for leading ladies during a period when headstrong heroines were a Hollywood trademark. To school Iris in the ways of these admirable women, he sends her to the video store to rent some classic Hollywood films. After studying actresses like Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, she starts to get the picture.
Winslet and her co-stars recognized a similar classic instinct in their writer and director. “The great dialogue in The Holiday harkens back to an old Tracy/Hepburn film,” according to Burns. “The situations may be exaggerated, but you feel like you're seeing real people deal with real issues. Nancy is especially good at finding the humor in that drama.”
And like those halcyon-days comedies, Meyers' protagonists revel in the ageless battle of the sexes. “Nancy asked me to watch a lot of Cary Grant movies, because he was a master at enjoying his leading ladies,” says Law. “He was able to draw humor and vulnerability from them by being a very solid male presence, but with his own vulnerability.”
Even more satisfying, says Law, is the fact that The Holiday embodies all the virtues of those classic films while still being completely contemporary. “Nancy strives for a timeless feeling in a cutting-edge, modern film,” he added. “There's no hiding the fact that we're making it today.”
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