Madison news - interview: Cameron Diaz

Some actors are a sure thing; you see their name in bright lights and know what you’re in for. Look at Matthew McConaughey, a man for whom the term rom-com was surely created and who has turned playing the role of irresistable-but-tameable roué into a fine, shirtless art. Or
Hugh Grant, a veteran of the stammering, hair-fiddling English gent. They’re safe; reliable. A bit like, you might say, Cameron Diaz, and her perfectly nuanced goofball blonde.
It’s a niche that’s made her millions, but it seems that Diaz’s days as a guileless Californian hottie are numbered, thanks to her role in this month’s drama My Sister’s Keeper. Based on the best-selling Jodi Picoult novel of the same name, the film deals with the thorny issue of saviour siblings, and is a 106-minute, merciless tear-jerker. There are a few things that will surprise you about Diaz in My Sister’s Keeper. One: she plays a mother. Of three kids, in fact, two of them teenagers. Two: there are no laughs and not one slapstick gag in the whole film. Three: she nails it. As the mother of a terminally ill child, a role some might say sees her stray perilously far from her comfort zone, Diaz, who turns 37 on August 30, does every lip tremble and anguished roar with studied perfection. She’s a revelation.
When we meet in Santa Monica, a 30-minute drive from Diaz’s home in the Hollywood Hills, we talk about what people might read into the film (having now played a mother, does her biological clock chime loudly?) and the
tragedy she experienced during the making of the film – her father, Emilio Diaz, died last year of pneumonia; just 58, his death was a shock to the actress and her family. But first, we talk the common denominators between most women: fashion, best friends and men.

She’s easy to spot in the crowd, the quintessence of laid-back Californian style: skinny, black Earnest Sewn jeans, a long-sleeved white cotton T-shirt, long, gold necklaces, a chunky gold ring on each hand. Her look has become more refined since the public first met her, starring opposite Jim Carrey in the 1994 hit, The Mask. “Compared to when I was in, say, my 20s, I’m not as flashy.” Pause. “But then I do this,” she laughs, looking at her short, manicured nails painted a bright fluorescent pink. “I think your taste just changes as you get older,” she continues. “For me, it’s always about the accessories. A girl can make an average outfit outstanding with the right accessory and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
Of course, for Diaz, the price of style is irrelevant, a matter she’s happily candid about. “[Celebrities] get things thrown at them all the time. Everything I wear, I don’t own. Well, I own this,” she laughs, pointing to her outfit. “Sometimes I get to keep the shoes I wear, but those gowns you wear to the Oscars, it’s a fairytale. It’s not real. We don’t own it. Somebody does eventually own it and they pay a bunch of money for it, but that’s not realistic for the general public. I think it’s really unfair to the public to judge their own fashion sense based on the celebrity fashions,” she says matter-of-factly.
It’s fortunate that Diaz is frequently gifted designer pieces, as shopping holds no real lure for the actress. “I never shop. I’ve got other things to do. I watch these girls on Robertson Boulevard [a shopaholic’s paradise in LA] and I don’t really get
it. I mean, it’s fine every once in a while, but every week or every day? What are you doing with your life if you’re shopping every day?”
Taking a sip of her drink, she looks out at the curve of sandy beach and reconsiders. “Having said that, I was talking to Drew [Barrymore] yesterday and I said, ‘Remember the days when we used to go shopping once in a while?’ We were like, ‘We’ve got to go on a girls’ shopping trip one day.’ ”
Barrymore is one of Diaz’s closest friends, and has been since the pair co-starred in the first Charlie’s Angels film in 2000. The duo are part of a tight-knit group who regularly hang out at each other’s homes and go on holidays together. “My girlfriends are the best, they’re my sounding boards,” she says. “They also show you your weaknesses and strengths. You have to have your girlfriends. It’s just not an option for me.”
As she goes to take a sip of her drink, she blasts a huge smile. “Not that I’m going to say anything bad about men, because I love men. I think they serve a wonderful purpose, don’t they?”
Diaz has often made headlines for the men in her life – Matt Dillon, Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake, and more recently, British model Paul Sculfor. And when it comes to love, Diaz is philosophical. “You can’t help who you fall in love with,” she says, scooping her long blonde hair back from her shoulders. “It’s all about the individual and you just can’t help it.” She is, however, clear about what makes her fall in love.
“I like a guy who is conscientious. What is attractive to me is a man who knows where they are at in life. I love a man who knows who they are. I don’t need someone who is working on their shit,” she laughs. “Do you know what I mean? I like men who have dealt with it, know what it is they want and who are present in life.”

Last year, while Diaz was filming My Sister’s Keeper, she lost the one man she had known longer than any other – her father, Emilio. After taking a break from filming, Diaz returned to work, impressing the film’s director, Nick Cassavetes, with her professionalism. “We all fall down,” she says now. “We all get hurt. That’s just life. I believe you can’t control what happens to you, all you can control is how you let it affect you. You have to feel what you feel. It’s not like I’m going to say, ‘That didn’t hurt’. It fucking hurt. But now I have to take the lesson and figure out how to turn it into a positive. You have to turn it into a gift. You have to think, ‘You know what? There is a lesson in this’. When something traumatic happens to you and there’s that hole, you have to look to the other side, turn it over and see there are all these treasures
inside. You just have to dig it out; it’s your job to find what they are.”
Diaz’s treasure is arguably her performance in the film. It’s a powerful, at times raw delivery, which will finally allow Diaz to slip into the bracket of “serious actress”. But if you’re wondering whether life might imitate art – whether having now played a mother, Diaz has been left with a hunger for children of her own – don’t over-think it. “I’m not going to say ‘I’m absolutely going to’ or ‘I’m absolutely not’,” she says of having children. “If I was going to say, ‘This is how I’m going to live my life’, I’m closing myself off to all these other possibilities. I’m the kind of girl who really likes to be open to every possibility, you know? I want to know all my options. So far, I have had an amazing life that I’m so grateful for. I wouldn’t change anything and I feel I’ve done okay,” she laughs. “I’ve got to trust myself that I’ll do well as I go. That’s the way it works for me and I’m happy with that.”