Tuesday May 29, 2007
Candid Cameron
By MICHAEL A. FREDERICKS
She’s no longer a greenhorn in the fairytale land that is Hollywood, but Cameron Diaz has a way about her that’s altogether refreshing.
Cameron Diaz doesn’t just laugh. She laughs with her whole body. It’s as if a force starts welling up at her feet, which travels up her long – long! – legs, all the way up and out of her wispy lips.
And while The Farrelly brothers’ There’s Something about Mary gave licence to journo types the world over to make ‘There’s Something about Cameron’-style headlines a cliché, it takes about oh, all of two minutes to realise that indeed, there is something about this model-turned-actress.
And it’s altogether charming and disarming and confusing at once.
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Cameron Diaz, on her Shrek character Princess Fiona: "She has been the anchor for this crazy tribe called Shrek. They swirl about her, she’s the straight line." |
Something that would force you to... well, laugh.
Yeah, not exactly what you’d expect from Hollywood royalty.
But then again, it is this very “something” that has propelled Diaz from being just another pretty face to the heights of an all-conquering box-office princess; allowing her to command a paycheque northwards of US$20mil (RM68mil) per movie.
And what’s great about this unique charm of hers is that it shines through in most, if not all, of the characters she embodies onscreen – be it the giggly heavenly creature in the Charlie’s Angels movies; the de-glammed frumpy wife to John Cusack in Being John Malkovich; or yes, the titular Mary of the Farrellys’ gross-out comedy – which, by the way, unleashed that infamous scene that probably urm, sticks most with Diaz fans.
Right now, facing a bunch journalists, in a room on the 11th floor of the W Hotel in Los Angeles, she is contemplating the answer to how much of her is in Princess Fiona, the animated ogre role she’s voicing for the third time in Shrek the Third (Shrek 3, locally).
“About 125 pounds,” Diaz quips, which draws laughter from the audience of eight.
“OK, I think we share in common not only a voice; she’s a modern woman, and I consider myself a modern woman. And we both, er, share a love for kungfu.”
She goes on to say how much she admires the animated character and how it evolved.
“I loved that she’s solid. She was this princess up in the tower waiting to be saved but you quickly realise that this girl could have left that tower anytime she wanted. She was just playing the part. She was told that she had to wait to be rescued, that that’s how it’s done.
“So she stayed up there but as soon as she owned up to being the person who’s capable – when she became the ogre Fiona – she was like, y’know, ‘this is who I am’.
“From thereon she has been consistent. She has been the anchor for this crazy tribe called Shrek. They swirl about her, she’s the straight line. She’s the one who sort of anchors them through. I think that that is something I admire about her.”
Of course, there’s a lot to be admired about Diaz, too, who owned up to what she was a long time ago: leaving home at 16, travelling all over the world as a model before she got her big break in Hollywood, playing the stunning blonde, Tina, opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask.
Her follow-ups – including indie comedy The Last Supper, Keanu Reeves-starrer Feeling Minnesota, and Danny Boyle’s A Life Less Ordinary – didn’t actually set her acting career alight, but it was just a matter of time before she was enlisted among the elite, getting roles in box-office hits like My Best Friend’s Wedding, Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York.
Now of course, she’s in a comfortable place, which can’t be said for her onscreen animated self.
Fiona is pregnant and unsure how to break the news to husband Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers). To make matters worse, her father, the king, er, croaked, leaving the throne to Far, Far Away empty, which sets Shrek on an adventure with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to search for the young heir Arthur or Artie.
And what does Diaz think of her character’s pregnancy?
“I think it’s great to see the progression of the story. I think it’s really brave for the filmmakers to go to that place. Have we ever seen a character getting pregnant in a children’s animation film?
“Now we know that Fiona is pregnant; it’s an interesting subject matter to introduce. I think it’s really smart, I think it kind of appeals to adult audiences. So there’s that little tip to parents. They get to relate to that.
“Which I think is holding true to the integrity of the Shrek stories – it consistently provides something for everyone.”
Naturally, this begs the question: Does Diaz see herself as a mother in the future?
“Well I know exactly what’s gonna happen if I answer that question. About three months – no, make that two weeks – from now, they’re not gonna mention anything about Shrek. All they’re gonna say is, ‘Cameron wants to be a mother!’
“Well, it’s safe to say I’m not going to be popping out any bald-headed green ogres at the moment. It’s not happening, I’m not giving birth to little Fionas. So we’ll just keep on that track, how about that?,” she firmly but jokingly states.
She does that a lot; making light of what can be deemed controversial or, well, just uncomfortable. Like when the conversation steers to Justin Timberlake, her ex-boyfriend who voices the character Artie.
When asked if she had anything to do with Timberlake’s involvement in the movie (they were still a couple then), she coolly replies: “I think (producer) Jeffrey Katzenberg had a crush on Justin a long time ago.
“In fact, he put him in the first Shrek before Justin and I had anything to do with one another. Jeffrey put Artie in Fiona’s childhood, so that was a long time ago.”
It’s obvious that Diaz knows how to handle the press, but she says that it isn’t easy, “sitting in front of you guys, talking about this.”
“It may appear easy but it’s not. Being able to put yourself out there in the world. I think that requires passion and is somewhat courageous.”
Passion is also what drives her involvement in the environmental cause, being active in her everyday life and using her status as a celebrity to spread the message.
“I don’t think that I wave the banner, necessarily, but I value the environment. I connect to it with my heart and my soul, my intellect and my being.”
In fact, it has always been a part of her life, she says, adding that her grandmother raised all of her own animals, all of the food in the backyard.
She will also be writing a book, called Green Book, that will be out in June.
“The book will offer over 700 solutions to everyday life, from travel to beauty products, to household and sporting products – every aspect of your life that you can go to and say, how I can do this better?
“It tells you, if you’re consuming the way that you’re consuming currently, what it costs the planet. And then, if you consume in this more ecologically-friendly way, what you save the planet. And then, what you can do to follow through with that.
“It’s as simple as changing one light bulb. If everybody in America just changed one lightbulb in their homes, it’s equivalent to taking out a whole fleet of cars from the street for four months – something as crazy like that.
And, of course, as you’d expect from her self-deprecating self, she adds: “I’m terrible at numbers, I should be better at this job, but it is as simple as that. It’s about changing habits. That’s all it’s about.”
Diaz herself has made several changes to her lifestyle for the green cause.
“I drive a Toyota Prius, I’ve driven it since the first model came out. And I try to be careful with the energy that I consume.
“At present, I’m remodelling my house – putting up solar cells and such.
“I also carbon-neutralise my travel, because I do it so much. What I do is calculate the amount of travel – the distance, the kind of plane that I’m on.
“I provide this information to a company that tells me how many credits I have to purchase from an alternative energy source, and how many trees I can plant to offset the amount of carbon I put into the atmosphere. So I try to have that balance.
And just as Diaz is asked to finish the interview session, she says, “oh, and I have several lightbulbs that I have changed.”
And then she walks out of the room. Laughing.
Shrek 3 begins screening nationwide on Thursday.
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