In one of her frankest interviews ever, Cameron Diaz reflects on love, loss and happily ever after. By Donna Walker-Mitchell.
Cameron Diaz is twirling a gold costume ring on her right pinkie finger.
“It’s nice, right?” she smiles, admiring the yellow stones delicately placed around its square shape. Ask her who makes the piece though and she’s stumped.
“Let’s see,” she says, taking the ring off and peering inside the band. “I love gold. I love accessories and this... ,” she adds, her voice trailing off as she tries to find the designer, “is Melinda Maria. There you go!”
Cameron has never looked better. The 37-year-old star is dressed in Rag & Bone, including a white blouse with delicate black piping, navy satin jacket and dark denim skinny jeans with black ankle boots. Her famous platinum locks are long and her face is bare except for some dark grey eyeliner and mascara.
“It’s not like when I was voicing Fiona,” she says, talking about her character from the fourth and final
Shrek film,
Shrek Forever After. “When I was doing her voice, I wanted to wear red lipstick every day for some weird reason. It felt appropriate. Today was different,” she says, touching her bare lips.
Suddenly she leans over conspiratorially. “I have a story to tell you,” she says, moving forward on her chair. “It’s a great one, especially for us in our 30s.” Cameron says her friend’s stepmother, who is in her early 50s, recently went to lunch with a woman who was in her 80s. During the lunch, the 50-something woman lamented having to wear tops with sleeves to cover up her arms.
“She was like, ‘Oh my arms, I’m always going to have to have sleeves now,’ ” Cameron says, moving her right hand up her left arm.
“The woman who is in her 80s said, ‘Sweetheart, wear your arms out now because when you’re 80, trust me, you’re not going to.’ So here’s what I say: live it up!” she says, letting out a huge belly laugh.
“I mean, seriously. Live. It. Up. Whatever you still have, appreciate it because it’s not going to look the same in 10 years. Appreciate what you’ve got right now and make it work.”
Cameron has been doing just that since she burst onto the big screen 16 years ago with a famously exuberant dance opposite Jim Carrey in
The Mask. Even at 37, her body is as incredible as it was then, thanks in part to a mixture of pilates, light weights and her long-time trainer Teddy Bass.
“He’s awesome,” she says, her turquoise eyes sparkling. “I do have to work out regularly and I definitely believe in taking care of your body. To me, it’s the same as eating, sleeping, breathing and drinking water. I have to work out.”
Finding the time for it can be challenging though as her work schedule this year has been full. After finishing
Shrek Forever After, Cameron also worked on
Knight and Day with Tom Cruise,
The Green Hornet with Seth Rogen and
Bad Teacher with Jason Segel and ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake.
A few weeks ago, for the first time in her life, she hit a wall and needed to rest. “I have so much energy – it’s crazy. My friends are always saying to me, ‘What is your problem? Are you not tired?’ But three weeks ago, I was exhausted because I did a film for six months with Tom [Cruise], had no time off and did another film that was demanding of my time and energy. It was a quick shoot, but it was like running a marathon. I really tapped out my battery. I thought, ‘I’m exhausted’ and I don’t get exhausted very easily. So I slept. It’s amazing,” she laughs.
“That’s my other tip,” she smiles. “Sleep is the key. If you sleep it charges your batteries, repairs your body and you can just keep going.”
With
Shrek Forever After being the final instalment of the
Shrek series, Cameron says it’s the end of an era. The film deals with the issue of true love and finding your soul mate. In real life though, Cameron believes love doesn’t have to be defined as being with one person forever.
“What I love about this story, especially with Shrek and Fiona, is that true love finds you. It’s destiny and fate,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I think there is someone out there you are meant to be loved by and to love. You know what the biggest misconception is?” she asks, taking a sip of her drink and sweeping her long blonde hair back from her shoulders, “in society we think it’s supposed to happen at 18 and we’re supposed to fall in love with that person and get married to them and that’s the person we’re supposed to love for the rest of our lives. Bullshit. It doesn’t happen that way.”
It’s not that Cameron doesn’t believe true love can strike at a young age. She just doesn’t think it’s the norm.
“Look, it has happened that way and it still can happen that way, but I think we’re all seeing in society now and in our lives, that it’s completely different,” she says. “We live our lives completely different to that ideal. Some people can go through their 20s, 30s and 40s and not find their true love. Maybe in their 50s they find their true love. You know what?” she asks, touching one of her gold hoop earrings. “The way we’re living now, you’ve still got another 50 years with that person. Who would want to be married to them for 80 years? You know what I mean? The same person?!’” she laughs.
“Why not break it up a little bit? Why not? Seriously. If you’re freaked out and worried about spending 20, 30 years sleeping with the same person, then don’t do it,” she smiles.
As for her own love life, Cameron has been linked to actors Jared Leto and Matt Dillon, and most famously dated musician Justin Timberlake from 2003 to 2006. The pair were even rumoured to be preparing to walk down the aisle. Looking back though, Cameron is not one for regret and her philosophy on love is a simple one.
“Have somebody for five years, another person for five years and then maybe that guy for 10 years or another one for 20. Life is long if we’re lucky. Yes, love might last forever, but you don’t always live with the person you’ll love forever. You can love that person for the rest of your life, but you might love someone else along the way. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I think the misconception is the idea that we’re supposed to love and be with the same person and share the same bed
with the same person our entire life and I just don’t believe that.”
As Cameron sits back in her chair and picks up her glass, she wants to clarify her point and continues. “I believe that it can happen, but I don’t believe it’s the only way to go. ”
Cameron is clear and honest, and you get the feeling she’d be a great girlfriend to have around on a regular basis. One of her favourite things to do is call up her group of friends and go on holidays with them, usually somewhere by the beach. “I need to do it again soon,” she says. “I love going on vacations with big groups of people; so I’ll call up my girlfriends and say, ‘Listen, show up this week at this location.’ Then we’ll go surfing, hiking, whatever. Or we’re just going to sit and eat for a week,” she laughs. “We’re cooking and that’s it.”
One of her favourite destinations is Hawaii, where she can hang out on the beach, go surfing and keep it very casual. “If I can just wear a swimsuit and get around barefoot, I’m usually pretty happy,” she smiles.
Lately, finding time to decompress has been a little more difficult than usual for the hard-working star, but she says she is content with where things stand – both on and off screen.
“I think I’m still a 14-year-old boy at heart, really,” she laughs. “But I feel completely blessed with everything that has happened in my life. I have no regrets and I love where I’m at right now. I hope to keep working and if not, something else will come around.”
Cameron was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Billie and Emilio Diaz, and the family moved to Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles, when Cameron was a child. She was extremely close to her father, a Cuban-American, and when he died suddenly in 2008 from pneumonia at just 58, it dealt a huge blow.
But Cameron isn’t one to dwell on the negative and she says the best lesson she has learned in life is to just keep going, no matter what’s thrown at you.
“I don’t think of it so much as battles, as just life, you know?” she says. “You just have to go through it and not stop. You have to keep going and just not lay down.
“Here’s what I think,” she says, twirling her gold ring again. “You have a choice in life. You can lay down and get walked over or you can keep pushing through, keep on your feet and keep moving. That’s what I’ve done through my life.”
“We all have our challenges. We all have those moments which make us go to one knee for a little bit, but you have to get up and keep moving.”
Shrek Forever After is in cinemas on June 17.
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