Cameron Diaz: Candid Cameron

Q: You got alcohol poisoning in Australia while filming a Coca-Cola commercial when you were 18. How serious was it?

A: It was serious. I went out drinking in the Australian sun not paying attention to what I was consuming, and I consumed a lot. I woke up the next morning so sick I didn't think I was going to live and called my mother and said if I died she had to come get my body. I told her I had the flu--I didn't tell her until last year it was alcohol poisoning. That was a stupid thing--I lost seven pounds in five hours. I didn't function properly for a week.

Q: Did it cure you from drinking?

A: No. But it cured me from being that stupid.

Q: What about drugs? Marijuana? Coke? Acid?

A: I didn't try everything. Heroin scares me. Acid doesn't.

Q: Have you ever done acid?

A: [Nervous laughter]

Q: How many times?

A: My mom always told me there's no responsible way of doing drugs.

Q: What did your parents teach you about religion?

A: Where I grew up there were a lot of Catholics. We were surrounded by a Lutheran church, another Protestant church, and a Catholic church. We had friends who went to all of those with their parents, so my mom would drop my sister and me off at any of the churches we felt like attending. They decided whatever faith I wanted to follow as an adult would be my decision. I pretty much follow my parents' [beliefs]. Do to others what you want done to you. Don't hurt people. Be a decent person. I believe there's a higher being. I don't call my creator God or Buddha. I don't need to know where I came from--just existing right now is enough.

Q: How did you and your two-year-older sister get along?

A: I adore and love her like nobody ever. But we fought like crazy when we were kids. We were maniacal--everybody in the neighborhood knew that when we started fighting, step back. We were like two Tasmanian devils. I was a total terror to her, and she was patient with me. She took care of me, looked out for me, was the perfect big sister.

Q: Did she ever want to do what you're doing? Any jealousy there?

A: There was a time when she was younger that she might have wanted to. We look a lot the same. But we're built completely differently. We photograph differently. The camera helps me, likes my face. My sister is incredibly proud and supportive of me.

Q: When did you live in Paris?

A: I was 19 or 20. It was a huge difference from Japan. I rented my own apartment. French food is where I learned about cellulite [laughs]--that I too could be a victim.

Q: Is modeling, by its very nature, a superficial life?

A: No, I enjoyed it. I look at my modeling career as the apprenticeship to my acting career. It set me up to handle a lot of things, from getting your hair and makeup done to having people touching you all day long, to being able to keep your body and your mind in two different places while you have that happening so that you can do your job when everybody leaves you alone.

Q: Who are the most beautiful women in the world to you?

A: Kate Moss is incredibly beautiful. She's a great model who changes her look on every page. I've seen a lot of beautiful women. To me, my mom is one of the most incredible women I've ever seen. My sister. Two of my close girlfriends. Those are the people who are beautiful to me.

Q: Did your mom ever talk to you about sex? Dating?

A: My mom pretty much opened that up to us when we were young. My older sister, too, helped me to understand things like boyfriends. I was always a flirt and my mom knew that. I was boy-crazy since I was seven. They worried about me in that way and wouldn't allow me to date until a certain age--but I was always going out with boys! I didn't date until I was 15, 16. Usually with older guys.

Q: Did you talk to your parents after your first sexual experience?

A: I don't know.

Q: Yes you do, you just don't want to tell.

A: [Laughs] Yes, I did tell my mother. She said, "I hope you're carrying a very big stick in the corner of your room." I said, "It's very big and very heavy."

Q: So you didn't tell your father?

A: I don't think my dad wanted to know.

Q: You've spoken of having a plan--an idea of what you want for yourself. What is that?

A: To just not make a complete asshole out of myself every time I go up for a part. [Laughs] The one thing I hate most of all is being forced into something I don't want to do.

Q: Does money enter into your plans?

A: I'm comfortable with what I have and the money I've made. I don't buy toys. I don't have the spending habits most actors have.

Q: What was your greatest extravagance?

A: A meal I paid for in cash in Cannes. It was with 20 people and rather decadent.

Q: Have you ever been starstruck?

A: I made an ass of myself with Holly Hunter. She's one of my favorite actresses. The first time I met her was at ShoWest--she's short and I'm tall with heels on and I went up to her and kept saying how amazing I thought she was. And then I started doing dialogue from Raising Arizona, which is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Q: What other actresses do you admire?

A: Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Patricia Arquette.

Q: What are the best films you've seen lately?

A: I haven't seen many movies--I loved Trees Lounge, Swingers, Big Night and Fargo.

Q: Besides Raiders of the Lost Ark and your early infatuation with Harrison Ford, what movies made you appreciate the art form?

A: I loved The Color Purple. That story of the two sisters was just amazing. Nothing could tear them apart. I cry from the beginning to the end of that movie every time. Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover are so amazing in it.

Q: You've said you want to do roles that excite and scare you--why scare you?

A: When I say "scare," it's just challenge. To see whether or not I can do it-- and that's pretty much everything that I do. [In that respect] this last role I just did in Danny Boyle's film A Life Less Ordinary is very important to me.

Q: You've said the ensemble piece The Last Supper was like school for you. What attracted you to the material?

A: I was on a plane reading the script with my sister reading over my shoulder, and we were laughing through the entire thing. The material was witty, funny, intelligent and twisted.

Q: In the film, you and your liberal friends kill people who disagree with you. Think you're capable of killing anyone?

A: Yes, I do. Only because I was in the room with my sister when she was having her baby. When I saw her cut open and strapped down, I knew at that moment that I was capable of murder if something went wrong.

Pages: 1 2 3 4