Sunday, June 21, 2009
A+E, In this Issue..., Movies, Q&A

A real ‘Keeper’

Cameron Diaz on playing a mom and dealing with heavy themes in her new film

BY BERT OSBORNE

Equally adept at comedy ("There’s Something About Mary," "Being John Malkovich") and drama ("Gangs of New York," "Vanilla Sky"), Cameron Diaz is among Hollywood’s highest-paid stars, thanks largely to the overwhelming success of her "Shrek" and "Charlie’s Angels" movies. She’s among its most glamorous actresses, too, a quality she effectively downplays in her latest film.
 
In "My Sister’s Keeper," Diaz is a wife and mother trying to keep her family together under very trying circumstances: Her elder daughter (played by Sofia Vassilieva) is dying of leukemia; her youngest (Abigail Breslin), a test-tube baby specifically conceived as a bone-marrow donor for her sister, takes her parents to court and sues for medical emancipation; and her husband (Jason Patric) doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with her about how to handle it all. Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack also star in director Nick Cassavetes’ adaptation of the Jodi Picoult best-seller.
 
Diaz, 36, talked about the film during a recent interview in Los Angeles.
 

A lot of actresses your age might have reservations about taking on their first "mother" role.

 Hmm. Why do you think that would be? [She laughs.]

I don’t know. Why do you think that would be?

 You know, I probably should’ve thought of that. It probably should’ve been the first question I had, but it didn’t even cross my mind. I didn’t really worry about it. When I read the script, I was just thinking about the story and the people—not just this woman I was going to be playing, but all of the characters. I was just so enthralled and completely taken by the story, and I just wanted to be a part of telling that story, doing the best I could with it. I never thought of it in terms of my career or how other people were going to see me in the role. The fact is, I’m not 25 anymore, so I can’t really worry about those things. Besides, just biologically speaking, I am old enough that I could have a 16-year-old child, you know what I mean?

Jodi Picoult, who wrote the book, has voiced reservations about some of the changes made in the script. Had you read the book prior to starting the film?

 Obviously, without the book there wouldn’t be the movie, but that was just the jumping-off point for us. The script became something very different. Nick [Cassavetes] started with the book, but he took it and made it something very personal for himself, something tied into his own experience. [His daughter has a congenital heart condition.] Because of that, I didn’t read the book first. I wanted to honor what Nick was doing and how he was choosing to tell the story. I didn’t want to attach anything to the character that I might’ve gotten from the book.

He seems like such a macho guy. I mean, his last movie was the gritty "Alpha Dog." What makes him the right director for something like "My Sister’s Keeper"?

 Well, he can also direct something that’s really romantic, like "The Notebook," right? His heart, that’s what makes him the right director for this. He has a massive heart. He’s such a beautiful, compassionate, humane person. Again, he went through something like this with his own daughter. He’s still going through it. It’s a reality for him every day.

A lot of this story deals with how the various members of the family deal with the idea of death—or don’t deal with it—and your father passed away during the making of the film. Did that personal experience have any kind of impact on how you saw or played this character?

 That happened very suddenly and unexpectedly, and fortunately we were able to stretch out production to give me at least a couple of weeks to deal with that. It was a blessing that I was fortunate enough to have this cast and crew of people to come back to. I can’t say it changed my take on the character, though. One of my biggest challenges with this role was, there were times when I just felt like breaking down in tears about all this woman was going through, but one of the first things Nick told me was: "She doesn’t cry." She’s too busy trying to hold it all together. It’s not that she never shows any emotion—she gets angry a lot [she laughs]. Just no crying.

What were some of the other challenges?

 Just getting to a point as a character where she could finally let go. As a parent, I don’t think you ever really let go. When somebody close to you dies, I think they’re always with you. What’s so wonderful about this film is that, as many moments as there are about death and what everybody’s going through during that process, it’s also very much about living life. The story follows the family for 10 years or so, and it’s not all about sickness and hospitals and death. I think the other, lighter moments in the film work really well, too, in showing how bittersweet it all is. I also liked that the movie doesn’t make it one character’s story. It’s about how each of the different family members reacts, so you get to see it from several different perspectives.

Were you able to offer any show-biz advice to your young co-stars in the movie?

 Not really. The lessons they have to learn can’t come from me, you know? They’re going to have to learn them for themselves. I mean, I might’ve offered suggestions while we were shooting a scene, just little actor-ly things or whatever as opposed to any grand career advice, but whether or not they listened was up to them. We all remember how it was. When we were their age, people would try to tell you thing, but who really listened? They’d say, "Wait until you get to be my age," but who ever takes that very seriously? It doesn’t really dawn on you what they’re talking about, until you do get to be their age, and then it’s like, "Oh, that’s what they were talking about." [She laughs.]

Not that your work always has to be fun, but it seems like working on something like "My Sister’s Keeper" wouldn’t be as enjoyable as doing a "Shrek" or "Charlie’s Angels" movie.

 It’s a different kind of fun. That’s something else Nick told me from the start. He promised that we were going to have fun, that we’d all be laughing on the set, that there wasn’t much point in doing the script at all if we weren’t having a good time doing it. He was right. The last thing he wanted was actors moping around on set in character, all sad or depressed or whatever.

Even so, this movie’s a real tearjerker. Do you have any other favorite tearjerkers?

 "The Color Purple." The whole sister thing. It gets me every time. SP