Cameron Diaz Interview For ‘Bad Teacher’

Some teachers just don’t give an F. For example, there’s Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz). She’s foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can’t wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. When she’s dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute (Justin Timberlake) – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch). When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher (Jason Segel), the consequences of her wild and outrageous schemes give her students, her coworkers, and even herself an education like no other. Check out what Cameron Diaz had to say about the film below. ‘Bad Teacher’ is in cinemas June 17th in the UK, and June 24th in the US.

How did you go about choosing the role?

Cameron Diaz: I think that parts like this don’t come around very often for anyone, man or woman (laughs). It was such a well written script, every part of it just worked. That doesn’t happen very often in the world of making movies, you are often trying to fix things as you go, nothing needed to be fixed on this, it was perfect. We had an amazing group of people who wanted to be apart of it as well, that always helps (laughs).

What was it about the script that you enjoyed so much?

Cameron Diaz: This character is just one of those that you know, I couldn’t pass it up. The first 30 pages I was like, “There’s no way I’m doing this, I cant play this character, she’s despicable, there’s no way to redeem her.” By the end of the script I was like “YESSSS” (laughs). The greatest thing is that they don’t redeem her, there’s no apology in the end, that just doesn’t happen. Usually the last 20 pages of the script are apologising for the first 80 or 100 pages, that’s not fun. What’s fun is that this person doesn’t apologise because a lot of people don’t, that’s how it goes (laughs).

Your characters attitude brings a lot of the laughs.

Cameron Diaz: Yeah, Elizabeth believes she doesn’t belong at that school. She wants nothing to do with being a teacher, she’s living her life like she just has to show up at this place for a few hours out of the day, because she’s required to so she can get enough money to pay her rent. She has no interest in being there, she doesn’t pretend to want to be there.

What was it like working with this cast?

Cameron Diaz: Every person in this cast is a genius comedian, there’s nobody in there who doesn’t deliver a fantastic performance and an unforgettable character. Lucy is phenomenal, such a weirdo (laughs), Lucy’s character is really awesome, she’s fearless. She became this weird creature. It was really funny because there were so much times I was just sitting there thinking that if this person really existed, you could not stand this person, there’s no way in the world you could not end up punching her in the face (laughs).

Jason plays the gym teacher who’s trying to steal my affection, I don’t have time for him because he’s just a gym teacher, gym teacher’s don’t make enough money to turn Elizabeth’s head. But, he’s funny, and he’s charming, and he’s relentless, so it’s hard not to engage him in some sort of relationship. I’m always keeping him at arms distance. He’s kind of the only person who gets Elizabeth there, he sees what she’s doing and doesn’t judge her for it.

Justin is amazing, so funny, so talented. He was so perfect for this part, he was the perfect person to play this part, I knew he would kill it, he was so funny. One of the greatest things about this film is the cast, such a great group, it was really a dream. What I love about all of the characters is that they start off one way, everyone around Elizabeth, Elizabeth is transparent, she’s clear, you know who she is from the beginning and she doesn’t change. But everybody else, you start off thinking you know who they are, by the end of it you’re like, “Wait a second, what is this person all about, what a weirdo,” (laughs).

There are some hilarious moments in this film, how did you get through some of the takes without laughing?

Cameron Diaz: We were having so much fun, you have to laugh through a movie like this, you can’t keep it straight. It really is one of those moments where with Jason and Justin, whenever I was with the two of them working, there were moments where I was like, “I’m never going to able to get through this take, I have to, I’ll look over here, I’ll look down.” Then my body starts shaking and they go, “CUT, we know you’re laughing!” You can’t help it, it was so funny, really really fun. It was a great movie to make, everybody was wonderful.