Cameron Diaz: Candid Cameron

Q: In She's the One you play a manipulative woman, an ice queen. Was that a stretch?

A: I'm drawn to characters like that because I feel sorry for them. I like to find the humanity in them, to make some people like them a little bit.

Q: In the film you tell your boyfriend you fake orgasms with him. Have you ever faked an orgasm?

A: I'm not going to tell you that! Oh my God!

Q: The movie's about lying and cheating in relationships. Have you ever lied or cheated in a real relationship?

A: The lying is always a white lie. It's better that they just don't know about it. Just to save them the anger or whatever they're going to feel, because it's natural. But cheating? No.

Q: You were involved in a five-year relationship with a video producer, Carlos de La Torre. How'd you meet him? What caused the split?

A: I met him on a job he was coordinating when I was 17. I fell in love right away and moved in with him after I graduated. We were together five years. He's a great guy, we're still friends, I love him. He's an important person in my life, but I had to move out and learn who I was. I needed to know, at 22, what decisions I would make if I had to make them on my own. It's important for everyone to know what it is to live alone. I'm a totally different person now than I was then.

Q: You've credited him with helping you get where you are now. How did he help?

A: Because of his influence in my life, his constantly challenging me to be a better person. Keeping me out of the dark holes that you can fall into in L.A. He kept me from going off on the wrong track.

Q: For your first four films you took on bad girl roles. What attracts you to dicey material?

A: I always like to find something I like about those characters and bring that to the forefront, so the audience can see it and they won't hate that person completely.

Q: What's the story with Head Above Water, where you play Harvey Keitel's wife? Shouldn't it have been released already?

A: I don't know. It's opening in Europe, but I don't know if it's ever going to come out here or not. I saw it and enjoyed it. It's not for everybody.

Q: Who's more intense: Keitel or Keanu Reeves?

A: Totally different energies.

Q: Harvey may have more demons.

A: I don't know, man.

Q: Who came on to you more?

A: Neither one of them came on to me.

Q: Whose life would you like to portray on-screen?

A: Dan Aykroyd. I told him and Danny DeVito at separate times that if there's anybody's life I wanted to flash before my eyes it would be theirs. Those two guys. Danny DeVito has an incredible family, great marriage, beautiful home, successful in so many different areas from producing and directing to television and film, he's happy, has great friends, has a wealth of life and he's a good person. I admire that in this business. And Dan Aykroyd is the same way, he's incredibly intelligent and lived this wild life in the '70s, and he has a successful marriage to a wonderful woman. He could have easily ended up in one place but didn't, he took himself someplace else.

Q: Did you make New Year's resolutions?

A: I always have the same ones which last about a month and a half and then I go back to my old habits: no smoking, I'll wear a bra, and I'll stop shopping.

Q: Do you dream often?

A: Yeah, I dream a lot. My nightmares have been about people trying to hurt my cat. Other than that I enjoy my dreams.

Q: Do you like to gamble when you go to Las Vegas?

A: Yes I do. I play craps. I'm all over the table--I'll have five bets out at once. My fun is going with a certain amount of money, putting it down on the table and playing as long as I can with it. If it's two hours, fine; four hours, fantastic; 30 minutes, I suck.

Q: Can you really tell which showgirls have had breast implants?

A: Yeah. You can obviously see what's real and what's fake.

Q: Do you think you might ever consider cosmetic surgery when you're older?

A: No, I'm not into cutting myself up. I'm pretty happy with what I've got.

Q: What's the secret to having great legs?

A: Wear high heels. Your legs stay in shape.

Q: What kind of exercise do you do to stay in shape?

A: I don't exercise.

Q: Are you tired of being compared to Ellen Barkin?

A: I don't know. Is Ellen Barkin tired of being compared to me?

Q: What parts of your body do you like the most?

A: My arms.

Q: What's your favorite store?

A: Barneys. But I live in Rexall, I can spend hours there.

Q: What is your favorite journey?

A: Morocco. It's the most beautiful country, but it was the most frightening experience I ever had in my life. I was a young, blonde-haired girl, 19, by myself, not speaking the language, traveling down the entire northern part of the country with a man I couldn't communicate with. It was a situation I wasn't sure I would get out of.

Q: Did you ever get touched when you didn't want it?

A: In Morocco it was mostly the children who liked to pull my hair, but in Paris, I used to get grabbed all the time by the Arabic men--swung around, thrown on the ground, that kind of stuff. They're scum. You have to be constantly on guard against hands and men and obscenities in the subways of Paris. Those are the type of people I don't mind if they slip onto the tracks.

Q: How superstitious are you?

A: Completely, absolutely. I knock on wood all day long. I'm going to be knocking on wood after this interview.

Q: You said, "No one can say they've never done anything in their lives that made them feel like an asshole." How often have you felt that way?

A: I do things every day that I feel like an asshole for doing. This interview, for instance. [Laughs] Why do I put myself out like this? I always end up hating myself.

Q: Are you hating yourself right now?

A: I don't know. I think I'm just recovering from my low blood sugar.

Q: What kind of costumes did you wear on Halloween?

A: Kermit the Frog.

Q: If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?

A: My cat, because she's got it so good.

Q: What's the most difficult question you could be asked?

A: What does e=mc2 mean?

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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Barbara Hershey for the November 1996 issue of Movieline.

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