Cameron Diaz: Candid Cameron

Q: Could I have a conversation like this one with him?

A: You wouldn't get anything out of him about himself. You'd be talking about philosophy. He's incredibly intelligent and well read. That's the biggest misconception about him, that he's stupid.

Q: Did he recite Hamlet on the set?

A: Yes. That is amazing to me, to be able to remember all those words. I can't remember anything.

Q: Courtney Love had a small part as a waitress--did you get to know her?

A: I was a big fan of her music...

Q: You were a big heavy metal fan as a teenager weren't you?

A: Yep. You had to bring it up! Meeting Courtney, I admired her musical ability and really liked her. She's fascinating. I thought she was great in The People vs. Larry Flynt. When I read that script I got to meet Milos Forman and Courtney was the first person I thought about.

Q: According to Allure magazine, you love housekeeping and Smashing Pumpkins, and you won't admit to dinners with George Clooney.

A: Yeah, I love housekeeping and Smashing Pumpkins. And Clooney is a friend of mine.

Q: Have you had dinners with him?

A: Oh yeah, sure.

Q: Do you follow what's going on in the world?

A: No, I cut myself off about a year ago. Everything causes me outrage, that's why I cut myself off. I grew up on TV, so if it's on, I can't get away from it. You could hit me over the head with a sledgehammer and I wouldn't notice if I'm watching television. When the Oklahoma bombing came on, I was in Minnesota and they put music to it, showing babies burned to death. I got so upset I decided I can't watch the news anymore. I literally cut myself off. I don't own a television, I don't subscribe to a newspaper. I just needed a break, to take time off from the world. My nerves were too frayed from this constant pounding--the riots in L.A., the O.J. Simpson trial, which just disgusted me--I would get sick to my stomach with that on television. I felt there's no hope in the world that we're ever going to be well in our minds. The whole world is sick. The way I view the world these days is that it's so far gone, there's nothing any of us can do. I hate having that outlook and feeling completely out of control. So I cut myself off and I've never felt better. I feel in control again, so maybe it's time to slowly bring in the things that I can handle.

Q: Do you trust many people?

A: I have a tendency to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, which always gets me in trouble because I find out later on that you really can't trust anybody. You'd think I would have learned. But I don't have a chip on my shoulder. It's what life's about, it's all a learning experience.

Q: You're dating Matt Dillon now, aren't you?

A: Yeah. He's amazing. We met in Minnesota where we were both doing a film. Then we hooked up later. We've grown so much together as people. I love him incredibly. He's a great actor because of his honesty. He's the most honest person I've ever met. He tells you exactly what he feels.

Q: Yet you live on different coasts.

A: Right, he's in New York, I'm in L.A.

Q: You and he have been seen kissing over breakfast at the Farmers Market and on a Manhattan street corner-- apparently you don't hide public displays of emotions.

A: No, because I'm in love. We're in love with each other.

Q: Would you like to marry him?

A: [Nervous laughter] Gosh, that's not even a question that I ask myself. Marriage means everything. My parents have been married for 28 years. I want to have a family, but it's not something I think about now.

Q: Apparently you're seen on the Internet in a state of semi-dress. Are those pictures from the topless shoot that appeared on the cover of Celebrity Sleuth?

A: I wasn't topless on the cover, only inside. I was devastated [when that came out]. My mom handled it really well. I thought it was a crummy thing for this photographer to do

.

Q: The "fuckhead opportunist," as you once called him?

A: Exactly. He didn't have any right to sell or give those pictures to anybody. It's the lowest form of human behavior.

Q: Were you naive to allow a photographer to shoot you that way?

A: He was a guy I'd done pictures with several times. He was also a friend of my girlfriend. To me it wasn't a big deal when I did it. If they had been good pictures--which they weren't--I would have used them in my book at the time, [though not the] full-on breast [ones]. Actually, in most of them I was pretty much covered up. I realized after the fact that it was stupid to have done it. I didn't want them to get out. I'm not ashamed of what I've done--I was 16, for Christ's sake. It makes me sick that now that I'm recognizable somebody would go ahead and sell something I did seven years ago just to make a buck.

Q: When you first started modeling did you get much work?

A: I worked just one job before I went to Japan. And it wasn't until I got back from Japan that I actually started working.

Q: You were 16 years old at the time. How come your parents let you go there alone?

A: My parents and I always had a good line of communication. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and they trusted me to say whether or not, once I was there, I could handle it.

Q: Did this early modeling interfere with high school?

A: I finished high school. That was my agreement with my parents: if I was going to model, I would graduate from Long Beach Polytechnic High. Japan was my summer vacation.

Q: Was it a good high school?

A: It's a big school, basically in the ghetto, next to the projects.

Q: Do you come from a middle-class family?

A: My parents have been working the same jobs for 20-odd years. They were able to afford what was needed to make our lives comfortable. When I look at it now I don't know how they were able to provide for my sister and me [the way they did]. I have a lot of respect for them.

Q: How in touch are you with your various ethnicities?

A: My father's Cuban and Spanish. My mother's German, English, American Indian. Growing up I felt my family was different from everybody else. I didn't know any other Cubans and there was a cultural difference from the Mexican families I grew up with. I thought we were freaks.

Q: Is there a sense of superiority that Cubans feel over Mexicans?

A: Yeah. I think the Cuban culture thinks they're better than everybody. [Laughs] Educated Cubans who came here are complete elitists. The Cuban people are generous and wonderful and warm, but when it comes down to pride in their heritage, they're incredibly proud.

Q: Did you ever piss off your parents?

A: Oh yeah, but we don't have to talk about it. [Laughs] It's the not coming home when I was supposed to, or coming home drunk one time.

Q: When did you take your first drink?

A: I don't know.

Q: Under 14?

A: I don't know. [Laughs] I used to sneak sips of my dad's friends' beers, that kind of stuff. I wasn't too out of control.

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