With her long, blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, casually outfitted in a green shirt and black jeans and sipping on a Grande from a large Starbucks thermo, the lovely, 36-year-old, Hollywood superstar Cameron Diaz (a second generation Cuban-American) explains what it felt like playing a mom in her new film, the tearjerker My Sister’s Keeper, Directed by Nick Cassavettes.
Cam (as she is known to her friends) offers up her own thoughts about cancer, cloning, her career, stardom and fame and the plot of her next film, the thriller The Box.
Is there a downside to fame?
“I think it’s amazing to be able to connect to people. I walk down the street and I have an amazing experience talking to people whom I don’t know, who know me, and who I’ve touched.”
And that isn’t annoying, sometimes?
“No! I think it’s amazing. I feel really, really honored to be able to do that and when I meet people I’m happy to say hello to people. In this day and age, it’s harder to take pictures and sign autographs. It’s almost impossible because if you do one, you have to all of them. And I’m not in an insular bubble, and I don’t go through the world not talking to people. I’m in the world, it’s just the way I love my life. So for me to be in the world, I can’t stop and take pictures or sign autographs because everybody’s got a camera these days. But, you know what? What’s wonderful is that people understand that — they totally accept it. I explain that to them and because people are gracious and they just want to make a connection anyhow, and they think the only way to do that is by asking you to take a picture, instead of just saying hello, you know, which I’m happy to do, and I have spent time talking to people — if I have the time — but I’ve got shit to do sometimes, you know! By the way, don’t say that Cameron says she has shit to do and she can’t talk to you!”
How was it shaving your head for your new film, My Sister’s Keeper?
“I didn’t really shave my head. I mean, I would be like a scientific freak right now. They would have me in a lab with my scalp, like trying to figure out how I grew it back so fast.”
The tabloids reported that you actually shaved your hair off.
“The paparazzi will say anything to sell their pictures, believe me! I didn’t shave my head but Sofia [Vassilieva] did, and I think that is the most remarkable thing — being 15 years old and shaving your head, when it’s just such a part of your identity.”
There are so many moral, ethical and medical issues in My Sister’s Keeper. What do you personally think about cloning?
“This movie is not about that for me, you know? I didn’t do this movie because I wanted to make a statement about those things. In a way, I think it wonderful that the film actually is successful in not making it an issue. It’s not like it’s making a comment on it, and at the end of it — you think at the beginning it’s going to be what you’re left with, but when you walk out of the film, you’re just left with the human experience. And I think that’s what it was for — is to not just to show you; you’re not just sitting with a sick child the whole time. You’re involved with all the family members’ lives who are affected by this child who is sick and you get to see all of their losses, all of their sacrifices that they have to give up — they’re not just losing a sister to death, which is something very different to the other losses that they’re suffering which is the loss of their mother, the loss of their father, the loss of their other siblings because of the disconnectedness that happens in a family who has a child with special needs.”
Did doing My Sister’s Keeper increase your maternal instincts or make you running and screaming in the other direction?
“Well, it’s amazing because it’s just a movie! (smiles) I’m just acting. I mean, we were fortunate to have a script that had wonderful dialogue, which supported these relationships between all of the characters. But, off the set, Abby (Breslin) and Sofia (Vassilieva) and Evan (Ellingson) and I were strangers. We don’t know each other. We’d come together a week before we started to make the movie.”
Was it hard to play a tough mother?
“Every role has its challenge. I also don’t know what its like to be an 18th century pick pocket [Gangs Of New York], you know what I mean? Or to have a mother who killed herself [In Her Shoes] and have to deal with that. I mean, it’s what we do. That’s why it’s the greatest job on the planet! If it’s something that speaks to you, which it does, for me to tell stories, this was a great opportunity to tell a story of someone who I don’t know whose very far away from — she’s not that far away from me — I understand her warrior nature. I understand loving very deeply and knowing that I would do anything just to save somebody that I love. I understand that very deeply. So in some ways it was very easy to understand that. But, you know, working with Sofia and Abby and Evan…who play my children, off the set, we’re just people who all come together to do the same thing — be actors who tell a story so all of our dynamic was very different off the set than on. And I didn’t try to be their parent. I wasn’t going to try to create something that wasn’t real.”
Abigail said you actually cooked for her.
“I did, but I cooked for everyone. I did, because that’s what you do for people that you care about, right?”
Do you feel like this is your most important role so far, career-wise?
“Umm, it’s hard to qualify it. I don’t know on what level, you know . . .”
Do you think about what the critics will say? Your performance is very strong and the movie is very strong . . .
“Thank you. You know, I don’t really worry about that. I’m not motivated by that, so it’s not something that’s really on my radar. I don’t wake up in the morning, or even take the job, thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to put me in this position.’ I’ve never been concerned about that.”
But I guess you always want to be in the next big movie or the next big thing, don’t you?
“Don’t put words in my mouth [waving her finger]. That’s not what I said. [Laughs] That’s not what motivates me to do what I do. I’m not doing this to be on top or to…. I’m doing this to tell stories and, particularly with this one, what was so wonderful about being a part of this. I could not do this movie because I thought, ‘Oh people don’t see me as a mother! I’m gonna play a mother and then maybe I’m gonna get these other parts…’ And I hear these questions from other media people, but that’s not what motivated me to do it.”
So, you’re not desperately hoping for an Oscar?
“Nooooo! Do you know what you have to do to get an Oscar? You have to talk to a lot of reporters for like days and months on end! But, not somebody like you, I’ll talk to you.” [Laughs]
What were Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva like to work with?
“ They‘re amazing. Fantastic. I think it’s very exciting to see two actors who understand the depths of emotion, in the way that they do, and it gets you very excited about how they’re going to take their experiences in life and convey them to the rest of the world.”
Did they have a lot of questions for you?
“We spent a lot of time together. I don’t keep track of . . . but, yes. I’m very opinionated but so are 13 year olds and15 year olds, so . . .” [Laughs]
How did this movie change your perspective towards cancer? Does it get you more involved with donating?
“Cancer is a funny thing, I mean a tricky thing, because it’s an epidemic. It’s now happening everywhere to everyone. It didn’t used to be that way and so, for me, I would ask the question why? Why is it happening? We just try to fix it as its happening. How do we take the cancer out and how do we kill it once it’s there? Rather than figuring out why it’s happened, and what we can do to prevent it. And I think that that, to me, is more interesting, and I say to people, you know — really think about what it is that’s in your environment that could possibly create . . . We leave a lot of things up to other people. You know, we leave our food supply, we leave our water supply, we leave the clouding of our air to other people. And those are the three things that we all need to say alive. You can’t hold your breath, you can’t live without food and you can’t live without water, and no matter how much money you have, no human being can do that. So we have to start asking questions like ‘Why is there so much cancer?’ And, then, do something about that.”
How do you stay in shape?
“I just try to take care of myself as best I can with what my schedule allows as it changes constantly.”
Anything specific? Pilates, maybe?
“Yeah sure, go ahead! Pilates! [Laughs] Whatever! All of it! Everything! I’ve done it all over the years. You know what it is? Its consistency. It’s really just about taking care of yourself. It’s not about what you want your body to look like necessarily, it’s more about being strong. For me, it’s about being strong and staying healthy and staying vital and capable with my energy. And a lot of that is cardio. Cardio is very important because your heart is your most valuable muscle and then also questioning where your food and water and air comes from.”
Your next film, The Box, is your first horror movie. When do you start finish it?
“The Box, I’ve already done it. It’s coming out in October. I did it before this movie. It’s not a horror film — it’s a psychological thriller. It’s more…Kubrick-esque, you know? If you’ve seen Richard Kelly’s films like Donnie Darko, he’s his own kind of filmmaker. I did that before so. I did three films back-to-back, which was a lot more films than I had done in the previous four years.”
It seems like you’re really changing up your career doing a lot of different things.
“Well, because I’ve made all the movies that I’ve made, I know sort of how different all the roles have been because I’ve played all the characters so, for me, it feels like I haven’t played the same character twice or even told the same story. I look at it sort of like that thing of like ‘OK, I did The Mask, and then I did Last Supper, Feeling Minnesota, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and then it was sort of There’s Something About Mary that made everybody…. but then I did, you know, Being John Malkovich and Any Given Sunday and Gangs of New York and In Her Shoes and Vanilla Sky, and in there I had The Sweetest Thing. . . ’ Why am I going through my career?! [Laughs] Umm, you know, so I feel like, for me, like I have done a lot of different things.”
That’s true, but you seem to be synonymous with comedy.
“But to me, I just look at is as those audiences are bigger. I’m not saying ‘Oh, I’ve done all these other things!’ Just for me, and my experience of my career, I haven’t been looking to go and do a movie like this because I feel like I’ve already been making these movies. You know what I mean? So I’m not going like ‘Oh, I’m only known for comedic acting, or I’m only known for . . .’ Yeah, sure those audiences are bigger so that’s how people on a larger scale recognize me. And I love making those movies. I don’t ever want to stop making those movies.”
Why?
“I love to do those films because I love reaching people. I love to have people laugh and the pay-off for me is having people come and say ‘You touched me, you made me laugh’. I mean, to me, making somebody laugh is just as important as making somebody cry. Well, not as important but just as gratifying. It’s gratifying because I know that people felt something and, as a storyteller, that’s why you do this. You don’t do it for people not to experience it. I mean, telling stories is age-old. It’s as old as we are. We’ve been sitting around the camp-fires, it’s how we express and tell people who we are and help us understand who we are, and also to understand ourselves and to understand other people. I just do it in a modern form. I just do it on film. I think it’s the same way that somebody dances, or somebody makes music or somebody adds numbers together or they build their rocket ship. It’s just what I do.”
What about the fame and the big bucks?
“I’m not doing it for the reason to be famous or to make a lot of money — it comes along with it — and anybody who does it for just those reasons should really ask themselves, ‘What do I wanna be famous for?’ Before they say that they wanna be famous. Because I know what I’m famous for and I’m famous for reaching people, touching people and making them laugh, making them cry, making them feel something and being connected to somebody. I have people come up to me all the time, and saying, ‘In Her Shoes — I have a sister, and you don’t understand, this is my story . . .’ You know, to make that connection with people is so gratifying and is really the reason why I do what I do.”
