cameron diaz movies
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 Chapter 2 - Completely Opposite Sisters
When she took on the adaptation of Weiner’s novel, screenwriter Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich”) was attracted to the rich yet painful relationship between the two sisters. “The truth is that the person who knows you best is the person who can hurt you the most,” she explains.
“That’s also the same person who can help you the most when you’re hurt. That’s the risk of loving; but the risk of not loving is greater because that’s horrible loneliness. In the beginning most of the characters in the story are in some sort of ‘well of loneliness’ – suffering from the same isolation.”
“When I read Susannah’s screenplay,” says Weiner, “I kicked myself because she had written things that I wish I had thought of. She totally captured the heart and soul of the sisters.”
“What’s so great about these two sisters,” says Curtis Hanson, “is that on the one hand they’re opposites. Maggie is beautiful, but thinks she’s dumb. Rose is an over-achiever and thinks she’s homely. But they’re actually two sides of the same coin. They’re connected through their mutual dependency, through habit, through love. And it’s not until trauma breaks them apart that they’re forced to function as individuals, which actually liberates them, allowing them to go their own way, and in a sense discover their true selves.”
Hanson’s producing partner, Carol Fenelon, responded to the way the screenplay dealt with the issue of self-esteem. “So often we succumb to other people’s perceptions of what we should be,” says Fenelon. “IN HER SHOES explores the challenge of making the most of what we’re capable of – about being comfortable in one’s own shoes. Maggie and Rose come to realize it’s never too late to change one’s path.”
As the movie begins, Maggie has burned every bridge with her family. She has hit bottom. “Maggie is like a child,” says Cameron Diaz. “She seems tough and outgoing, but she’s really very lonely, selfish and self-centered. To make her way through life, she can only use sexuality, looks and charisma. Eventually, she realizes these things are running dry, and that she must adopt a different way of living by relating to the people who love her. But she has always seen herself as a victim. She never takes responsibility for her actions, so she doesn’t really understand how she has arrived at such a bad place. When Rose throws her out, she truly has no friends to rely on, no place to go. She is desperate and terrified, and everything she does stems from that fear.”
“When we meet Maggie, she’s someone who always takes and never gives back,” says Carol Fenelon. “But during her journey, Maggie’s tremendous capacity for empathy begins to emerge. It is ultimately her ability to understand what it is like to stand in someone else’s shoes that fuels her growing desire to extend herself to others…her grandmother, the Professor, the older women in the retirement community, and Rose.”
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