I’ve always wondered if Cameron Diaz was like the characters she’s played on-screen; you know, kind of bubbly and free-flowing - not the type of girl who takes anything too seriously. After sitting in on a pretty large roundtable interview, I can say she is definitely that girl. When you read or listen to the interview you’ll see what I mean.

In the movie The Holiday Cameron plays a woman who lives in Los Angeles and decides to take a break from her life. She trades houses with a complete stranger, played by Kate Winslet, and moves to outside London for two weeks. Since this is a Nancy Meyers romantic comedy, obviously Jude Law would be Kate’s brother, and nothing is easy or simple.

The Holiday is going to enjoy the benefits of its ridiculous cast - all four major characters are being played by big movie stars. While there are a lot of serious Oscar films in the theaters right now, those who want to take a break and enjoy some lighter holiday entertainment will probably dig Nancy Meyers latest. 

Sorry… I sort of sidetracked there for a moment, back to the interview.

Here is Cameron Diaz, and for all of you who enjoy listening to the audio – here is the link for this interview as an MP3. And if you missed it – here is the Jack Black interview for The Holiday.

Question - Cameron, this movie is called The Holiday…

Cameron Diaz - Sure.

Question - And shockingly enough to me who would think that having a big Hollywood career would be everything, it seemed like you took a walk, a holiday from your career after Charlie’s Angels, you know, at the peak of whatever… something you worked so hard for…  Why?

Cameron Diaz - You know, I’m not really in any race with anyone.  I’m not really in competition with anyone.  So I mean that in a way that I don’t think my career or my life is a competition, do you know what I mean?  I don’t feel like I had to sort of be somewhere for any other reason other than I wanted to be there and I just sort of hadn’t found anything that really made me really want to jump into it.

To go back to work…?

To go back to work, yeah because as we do when were sort of on the beginning of our career, and were kind of like, I was learning about filmmaking and acting and wanting to sort of just keep the ball in motion I did film after film after film after film which was an amazing experience and I so thankful for it but I got to a point that I was sort of like; I don’t have a house, I don’t have any place to put my bags, I haven’t been home, I haven’t seen my family, I have no friends; you know what I mean.  And there was a part of my life that was really going strong but I didn’t have this other aspect of my life so much like Amanda [Laughing] but not in the love aspect of it but in life you just have to have a balance and so I just kind of took a little slow down for a little while which it’s been nice.  I probably should pick it back up but I really like it.

You have no regrets then?

No, I don’t believe in regret.  I honestly do not believe in regret.  There’s, I mean, you have to… I’ve always felt that the movies that I’ve made were the movies I was meant to make and the movies that other people make are the movies they are meant to make and if I see something that I admire, I admire it for what that person has done, but I don’t get jealous or I don’t get envious.  I don’t believe in envy, at all.  I don’t envy somebody else’s life or what their accomplishments, try to concentrate on my own so…

When you went away, so to speak, from your career, you still stayed this sort of figure in the news constantly…

That’s one of the reasons why I went away. [Laughing] I thought that if I didn’t do as many films then they would have to leave me alone because my mentality about this business is that this is my job.  I’m talking to y’all because this is my job and this is an exchange that all of us have, you know, we have an understanding about and consented, you know.  And I felt like, you know, if I just don’t make movies then they wouldn’t have any right to my life.  And of course, that’s not the mentality of “that” media so.  I realized, you know what, I’m not gonna be… if I make a movie or not make a movie they’re still gonna be there, so I may as well do what I love to doing and keep making movies.  So I don’t have any plans not to make movies.

Or become a recluse?

Or become a recluse… no, I like life too much.  The house is too small. [Laughing]

You say you’re somewhat like Amanda in terms of what you discover that “Live for today” philosophy which she doesn’t understand at all which she comes to the conclusion it’s not a bad thing to have.  Is that the conclusion that you’ve come to, just to live for the moment?

I’ve always lived that way, yeah.  I’m pretty much… I’m terrible at making plans. [Laughing] I remember when I first started doing press junkets, my first, at The Mask.  Every single person asked me, and I think it was because I was new…

We didn’t know who you were.

Yeah, exactly; so they were like, “Ten years from now, what kind of movies do you see yourself doing?” and I’d be like… “I don’t know.” I’m like, I don’t know, “…what do you wanna be doing?” and I was like, “Well, whatever I’m doing ten years from now, I don’t know if I’ll be making movies.  I don’t know if I’ll be doing something completely different.  Whatever it is ten years from now, I just hope… I want to be happy.  Period.  And I don’t know if it will be making movies that make me happy or if it’s… whatever it is, you know… I don’t know.  Milking a cow!”  Kind of on a milking a cow trip right now.  I don’t know why?

Where did that come from?

I don’t know.  I just think of… for some reason I have this imagery of like, five o’clock in the morning, this like, sort of meditatively [pretends to milk a cow] like in meditation.  I don’t know. [Laughter]

Well, it’s been ten… twelve years.  How happy are you?  And are you surprised you’re where you are?

Well, I have no idea where I’m at… [Laughing] I am very happy, I can’t complain, um, although I do. [Laughing] But over all I’m very happy with everything, you know, life is a journey.  You know what I mean?  My life is no different than anybody else’s life.  And like, some days I’ve got it all figured out and some days I’m like, what the hell is going on, you know what I mean?  It’s just like everybody else.  You know, that’s the human experience.  The experiences… the term of your life may be different and what you go through to have that experience may be different but it’s all… experiences is the same.

Is there any particular scene, any particular line that really resonated with you in terms of relationships you’ve been in, are in?

Not for me personally as far as nothing relates to me in these women’s relationships to my own.  Other than I know that, it’s sort of, like I said, the circumstances are always different but I think that we’ve all spent either too much time in a relationship or not enough time in a relationship.  You know what I mean?  That’s what I think is so great with this film, it’s so relatable.  You know, we’ve all been through it.  We’ve all had both of these relationships.  And what it comes down to I think, is that these women have not taken the time to get to know who they are.  You know, Amanda can’t even cry, that means she’s completely cut off from her emotions.  That means she probably doesn’t ever ask for anything or knows how to really give anything over because if she connects to that emotion she’s gonna lose everything that she’s been trying to hold together.  And Iris doesn’t value herself; she doesn’t know what she has to offer.  She doesn’t know what she’s worth, you know.  So she let’s somebody walk all over her all the time.  And those situations I think are, you know, that’s the human experience of traveling through this crazy journey of life, trying to figure out how to make love work.  And the foundation I think that, love [works] the best from what I’ve seen as examples as well as experiences, you have to really love yourself and know what your worth, what your capable of giving, what you want to receive and know how to be brave enough to be open and to trust people and trust yourself to be able to give and receive those things.  So… and that’s what I love about the journey in this film.  Obviously it’s a romantic comedy, it’s light, funny, it’s humorous but I think it’s also very honest.  And I think that’s why it works on so many levels.  It’s not this thing where you’re going, “Oh… That doesn’t happen!” we don’t end on this movie with these people standing on an alter together.  You don’t pan off the wedding ring up to, “I do.” [Laughing] There’s still the question there at the end of the day.  You know, at the end of the film you go, “Will this relationship actually work between these two people?”  It’s not about the end result with them, it’s the fact that these people decided to be open enough to take the chance to take the journey of finding out whether or not they’re love can actually work for any amount of time.  And I like that because it’s not unrealistic, it’s just what we do everyday.  You’re just seeing how it goes.

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