cameron diaz movies
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 Chapter 2 - Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz
Roy Miller is a spy whose mission is unexpectedly detoured by his brush with ordinary love. Cruise, an actor of a very rare breed who mixes iconic action hero roles with finely tuned character portrayals, brings unexpected dimensions to the film's twist on a classic movie character. His work as Roy Miller leaves audiences to wonder, just who is this guy, really? Roy had to come off alternately as hero or anti-hero, a framed agent or a seductive traitor - or as a man so in love he's ready to make a 180-degree turn in his life. "When we first meet Roy, he's an enigma, and you don't know if he's good or bad, what he's up to or why," says Mangold. "And with Tom you have somebody who instantly brings the credibility of being an action icon, yet who also has the ability to lighten up and reveal that Roy Miller is changing."
Adds Cathy Konrad: "Tom gets to the sense of longing just beneath the surface of Roy. He's endearing and charming, yet he keeps people wondering what he's all about until the last minute."
Cruise has come to define the suave, bold, quick-witted action hero in contemporary movies - in roles ranging from Top Gun to the hugely popular Mission: Impossible series - while at the same time earning three Academy Award® nominations for emotionally complex dramatic roles in Magnolia, Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July. He was thrilled to now have a chance to playfully upend just the kind of debonair, unflappable hero audiences expect him to evoke. From the minute he came onto the project, his motto was "Make it fun and make it cool."
"I couldn't wait to make this movie," sums up Cruise. "Knight and Day sweeps you into this grand adventure and love story - and we did everything we could to make it non-stop, unpredictable fun. I think Jim [Mangold] is a terrific storyteller and I really wanted to work with him and Cameron on this."
A large part of the attraction lay in the way Cruise's consummate action hero is suddenly shaken -- not by the dangers of his mission or the sheer numbers of people after him, but by his own heart when he meets June. Cruise enjoyed the idea that the start of Roy and June's rapid-fire romance isn't like any other, but that their relationship has much in common with every love story.
Cruise explains: "Inside this wild plot, these two characters each have a dream of what might come true 'someday.' But then they begin to see that this dream can actually be fulfilled. I think it's something audiences will relate to. Every couple has a story about how they met - it's just that Roy and June have a truly extraordinary tale behind the start of their relationship. Roy and June have the same dilemmas everyone always has in love - can I really trust this person? And who are they really? - but Roy and June's comes with higher stakes. The fun lies in how their relationship builds as the excitement around them mounts. That romantic tension in every scene made it some of the most intriguing action I've ever done."
Key to crafting that romantic tension was Cruise's long-awaited reunion with Cameron Diaz, with whom he previously starred in the suspense-fantasy Vanilla Sky. "As soon as we took on these roles, I could not wait to see what Cameron was going to do with her character. I always wanted to make this kind of movie with Cameron," he says. "I was really excited about it because I enjoy her work in action movies. She's talented, funny, athletic and a great actress, and this was such a winning character, I knew she'd give a winning performance."
Their chemistry began simmering from the first day on the set. "The repartee between us was just like boom-boom-boom," says Cruise. "Cameron's style of humor is unique and I love the way she can mix physical comedy with a really authentic feeling of romance."
For Cruise, action is character and vice versa, and that belief, along with his highly skilled athleticism, has driven a policy of always doing his own stunts, and often dreaming up his own stunts, no matter how risky. "It's challenging for me," he notes, "and I think it's more exciting and entertaining for the audience. It adds something to have the camera right there with Roy the whole time. Plus I really enjoy doing it."
To play Roy, Cruise not only had to leap rooftops, outmaneuver bulls on a motorcycle, and land a 727 in a cornfield, he had to balance Roy's laser-focused intensity and survival instincts with the frenzied, uncontrolled energy of a man falling head over heels in love. "Roy is completely intersected by June," he explains. "Right away, Roy sees potential in June, and he feels like he has to make sure she is always OK. But she starts out repeatedly rejecting his world. It reminds me of how real relationships work - how you run from them in the beginning sometimes, but then you come to this point where you have to decide if you're going to jump headlong into this adventure."
The film's adventurous pace, says Cruise, was set in motion from the get-go by Mangold. "I've wanted to work with Jim since I saw Walk the Line," Cruise notes. "I found Jim to have a very keen eye for suspense, a great understanding of romance, and also to be extremely funny. He was everything you hope for in a director when you're crashing planes, leaping rooftops and running from bulls."
Just as Cruise could not resist Roy Miller, Cameron Diaz was seduced by the part of June Havens, a seemingly typical, single, working-class woman who goes to Wichita to pick up a carburetor and inexplicably returns home to Boston ...as an endangered fugitive who is thrust into an international incident, who seems to be falling for a wanted spy, and who is suddenly discovering her own untapped power . . . on-the-fly.
Diaz, whose comedic skills and deft charm have made her one of today's most sought-after leading ladies, has drawn accolades for a broad range of roles ranging from the comic zaniness of There's Something About Mary to the spirited action of Charlie's Angels to the period drama of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Knight and Day's June Havens, however, was something different for Diaz -- a whirlwind of suspense and sexy humor that becomes an action-packed portrait of a woman finding the confidence to finally let go and trust her heart.
Mangold saw Diaz as a custom fit for the diverse challenges of playing June. "I honestly can't think of another woman who could have done so much in the role of June. Cameron is unique in that she's glamorous, beautiful, a great actress and, at the same time, is comically gifted and incredibly physically able. Who else could so perfectly capture a girl-next-door swept into a grand adventure, and at the same time be able to handle all the physical demands of this movie?" he asks.
Konrad adds: "Cameron lets you see how June turns from an inward approach to life to an outward adventure. You have the chance to see June expanding as a person. Just like June and Roy, Cameron and Tom brought out the best in each other."
Diaz found herself relating to June's discombobulated reaction to meeting Roy Miller. "When Roy and June bump into each other in the airport, they have that moment where you recognize something you've been looking for all your life," she explains. "At first, when June is flirting with Roy, she thinks she's only dealing with the ordinary dangers of falling for a stranger, but it quickly becomes the life-and-death kind of danger, and she has no idea how much she can handle."
As June begins to realize she can handle just about anything thrown at her, her entire world opens up. "She goes from a woman who doesn't have any idea what her capabilities are, who only ever dreamed of adventure, into someone who realizes that yes, she can drive, she can shoot and she can stay right with Roy," Diaz says. "What I love about June's journey is that she has been holding back in her life and when she meets Roy, it becomes a now-or-never moment for her to seize the day. Roy unlocks that in her. Meanwhile, Roy is this renegade adventurer who thinks he is always seizing the day, but he has never seized the one thing he really wants and needs: love. They're the perfect foils for each other - and they learn to trust each other even when trust is very hard to come by."
Much like Roy and June, Diaz found herself right away in a dynamic rhythm with Cruise. "Working with Tom is wonderful because he makes everything I do that much better," she says. "He has so much presence - and so much energy. If you're going to do an action movie, it doesn't get better than to do it with Tom Cruise. I loved building off his ideas, and I loved the way he can go from crashing a plane to falling in love and it all feels so real and exciting."
Like Cruise, Diaz was ready and willing to do her own stunts - from spinning cars to putting up her dukes. "I love training for fight sequences," she confesses. "It's a week of getting bruises and cuts and sprains, but it's also a lot of fun. When I went to the Golden Globes® this year in the middle of filming Knight and Day, I had lumps up and down my arms and scraped knees. I loved it!"
Diaz also loved the high spirits of the production - and the fact that she spent much of her time on the set laughing. "When you do a film where you want the audience to be laughing, and you spend a lot of your time while making it laughing, then you know it's going to be genuine," she sums up. "Tom and I had such a great time together that I think it can't help but come across in the action, the comedy and how these two characters come together."
Indeed it was the chemistry that instantly emerged between Cruise and Diaz that propelled the production with a spirit of joyful risk-taking. Sums up Mangold: "Tom and Cameron have this incredible vibe together, perhaps because they have such different styles. Tom is all about precision. He's laser-focused and very intense. Cameron is loose and wild and emotional. There's a natural oil-and-vinegar reaction that happens between them and it makes for an incredible cinematic combo."
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