Cameron Diaz Interviews 1: She Has Never Planned Anything

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She Has Never Planned Anything

This Angel has things pretty much sussed as she now enters her fourth decade…

Call it good karma but Cameron Diaz can seduce both men and women with equal ease. Her raucous sense of humour, her saucy tongue and, no doubt, those impossibly long legs, all help to label her a 'guy's girl.' Yet Diaz also emanates a quality that makes her equally successful as a 'girl's girl' - just ask her Charlie's Angels co-stars Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. Or her latest femme partners in crime, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair, with whom she shares the screen in The Sweetest Thing. Maybe it's just that she's funny. And gorgeous. And unapologetic.

'I think every third generation has an actress like Cameron Diaz - someone who is beautiful and is also incredibly gifted with comic timing,' says Sweetest Thing director Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions), who compares Diaz to comic icon Goldie Hawn. 'Cameron is her heir apparent, and she's a pleasure to work with.'

'I've pretty much behaved like a knucklehead my entire life,' admits Diaz, who grew up in San Diego and travelled the world working as a model before the acting bug struck. 'It was probably more adorable when I was a child… as an adult I'm sure it's less attractive.'

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. In recent films Charlie's Angels, Shrek and Something About Mary, Diaz has delighted audiences young and old, male and female, with her goofy sense of humour, becoming a bona fide blockbuster actress who was able to command a salary of $15 million plus for The Sweetest Thing.

'I've never done this for the money,' she says. 'I will always want to do whatever it is that my heart is in, and whether I get paid for it or not means nothing. It doesn't matter. I'll do it if it means something to me and I want to be a part of it.'

That attitude has led to an eclectic choice of films, including dramas such as Vanilla Sky (in which she brilliantly embodies the psychotically possessive girlfriend of Tom Cruise), Being John Malkovich (as a fantastically homely pet shop employee married to John Cusack's passionate puppeteer) and the epic Martin Scorsese period drama Gangs of New York (starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio).

'If I have any goal at all it's just to work with great directors and great actors,' says Diaz. 'I've never planned anything - I can't make plans, I can't keep 'em, I'm so bad. But the one thing that has always been consistent, I think, with my choices is that it's always been about the people I get to work with… people I admire, who are creative and wonderful.'

Love of the Ludicrous

The Sweetest Thing, a screwball romance road movie written by South Park scribe Nancy Pimental, is the kind of comedy that Diaz pulls off with grace. Christina Walters (Diaz) unexpectedly finds Mr Right (Thomas Jane) in a club - yes, a club - only to lose him in the crowd. Hilarious high jinks, campy send-ups and toilet humour ensue as Christina embarks on a rather ridiculous quest to find her guy again, with the support of her bawdy buddies (Applegate and Blair).

The camaraderie behind the scenes is evident in the movie, but the dazzling Diaz is the star of this film, which makes the most of the actress's love of the ludicrous. Asked what she regrets most about fame, she answers simply, 'Crowds are tough. If I don't want to be noticed, I have to not look anyone in the eye and not smile at anybody. And it goes totally against my nature. I'm the worst. I'm like, "Hi, what's up? Did you have a good day? Want a piece of candy?"'

Romantically, she's had a lot fun as well. Although she prefers to stay mum on her love life, it's common knowledge that she dated Matt Dillon (her co-star in Something About Mary) for a couple of years before she hooked up with sexy Jared Leto, to whom she got engaged in November 2000. There have also been rumours of an on-set romance with Gangs co-star Leonardo.

If she could step out of herself, what's the first thing she would do? 'I'd ride roller coasters,' jokes the actress, adding seriously: 'I would just walk. I'd walk through a crowd with my head up, and I'd look people in the eye. That would be nice.' --- By Kate Perchuk

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