Cameron Diaz laughs her deep, not very ladylike laugh when you mention that Shrek’s wife, Fiona, has been in the public consciousness for more than a decade. In Hollywood you can buy a piñata in the character’s likeness and wannabe female actresses don little green ears to play Fiona as they solicit tourist dollars next to Batman and Superman on Hollywood Boulevard. Diaz, the former California teen-model, who sashayed on to the screen to dropped jaws in The Mask in 1994, has been famous for somewhat longer. In 2008 Forbes magazine named her as Hollywood’s highest-earning actress. And having spent her previous two films, The Box and My Sister’s Keeper, in deeply serious mode — a therapeutic period after the death of her father, Emilio — the 37-year-old is now clearly up for a laugh. Coming up are roles in the glossy action caper Knight and Day, with Tom Cruise, as a gumshoe in Seth Rogen’s superhero movie The Green Hornet and then opposite her ex, Justin Timberlake, in the comedy Bad Teacher. Before that there’s Shrek Forever After (the fourth and final film in the series), in which Diaz’s Princess Fiona is about as royal as, well, Fergie. “I much prefer Fiona as her ogre warrior self,” admits the surfing, snowboarding, kickboxer Diaz. Was she never the princess? “No! Do I look like that kind of girl?”
Shrek Forever After is on general release on Friday
Non-Shrek cartoons
I grew up on Tom and Jerry and The Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny and those cartoons — when it was still like the hammer coming down on their heads in sadistic fashion. And when it was Christmas there was always Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. But I never saw any of the Disney classics, except for Snow White. I remember seeing her in her little glass box and the prince coming to kiss her and I thought, “Hmm, interesting”, but I knew it was only a fairytale.
Music
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The Killers I love this band — of course! [Diaz sang Mr Brightside in The Holiday, 2006.] Screaming my lungs out in The Holiday was very cathartic. I was exhausted by the end of it. I’ve seen them live and I love their sound. I like that each song and each album is so different.
Coachella I love going to Coachella, California’s “Glastonbury”. I love getting there at sunset when the wind is picking up. I’ve seen Rage Against the Machine there; they were fantastic. And the Red Hot Chili Peppers — they’re brilliant live [both bands headlined in 2007]. Otherwise I also love that album by The Good, the Bad and the Queen. And Kings of Leon. Björk is fantastic. I’m into all music. I like it all.
Amusing co-stars
Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy Last night I was looking at Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy [her co-stars in Shrek] thinking, “I’m looking at them, they’re funny and I don’t get to spend any more time with them”. They’re funny, funny co-stars.
Jim Carrey He made me want to make movies. I thought: “If I can hang out with people like this all day long, this would be awesome.” And I would have to say Tom [Cruise], too. He’s hilarious. Really, really. Jason Segel and Justin [Timberlake] in our new film, Bad Teacher, are both hysterical too.
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I’ve been really fortunate with funny guys, and I’ve laughed a lot making movies. When Drew [Barrymore] and Lucy [Liu] and I did Charlie’s Angels, that was off-the-charts fun.
Female idols
Michelle Pfeiffer I think she’s brilliant. I was talking to her and she said, “I’m better in my body at 50 than I was at 20”. I’d love to work with her, and Meryl Streep. I just watched The Devil Wears Prada yesterday again on the plane back from New York. She’s just so amazing.
Beyoncé What about Beyoncé? It’s not easy to take up any space in popular culture, especially for a period of ten years, but she’s been there the whole time. How do you do it? And she’s still relevant. And Shrek has been that. Every time it comes out people want more.
Love and commitment
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With Shrek and Fiona the whole story is that true love finds you. That it’s destiny and fate. I think that the big misconception in our society is that we think it’s supposed to happen at 18 and we’re supposed to marry that person then be with them for the rest of our lives. Bullshit. It can happen that way, but men and women can go through their twenties, thirties, forties and not find true love until maybe their fifties. And why not break it up a little bit? Everybody is freaked-out about spending 20-30 years sleeping with the same person — don’t do it! Love might last for ever, but you don’t always live with the person you love for ever. You might love someone else along the way.