Cameron Diaz's performance in "Being John Malkovich"

I don't even remember her being in it.

“I cannot believe that Catherine Keener got an Oscar nomination for her part as the insouciant, slutty office bitch, and Diaz didn't.”

There’s Something About This OP Mary I like.

R1 that could be because she looked like this

Catherine Keener is a cunt and overrated. She always comes off as smug in every performance I've seen although I liked her in this film.

Yikes.

R4 I think she is overrated, but is she a cunt IRL?

I always liked Diaz - in this and in her comedies. Guilty pleasure: Bad Teacher.

Yeah, I always liked her too. I'm a bit sad she stopped acting, but it's nice she got to end her career on her own terms and she seems like she's happy with her life now.

She definitely deserved the nom over Keener, but at least BAFTA and SAG nominated her for this role.

I had no idea she's only 48. I didn't think she was "old old" but I was thinking 53 or 54. Not based on looks, but just ballparking based on my own age (also 48) and how long she's been around.

Diaz's makeover for this role was kind of crazy. They really made her look like a frumpy Jewish girl from New York. She was unrecognizable. Isn't she half Spanish/Cuban in real life? She naturally looks much more Scandinavian to me (tall, blonde, blue-eyed).

R4 I think you’ve mixed her up with Mary Steenburgen, who is all those things and more, Catherine Keener is delightful and effervescent. I mix them up all the time myself as well.

She's kind of disappeared hasn't made a movie in like 8 years or something.

R12 she formally retired from acting several years ago. She's made a number of culturally-impactful films, has a fair amount of nominations under her belt (especially for a primarily comedic actress), took the money, and ran. She is still pretty young, so it is a bit surprising that she decided to throw in the towel, but more power to her. Maybe one day she'll get coaxed out of retirement and have a comeback, but who knows?

The Anna Faris character, Kelly, in “Lost in Translation” is based on Diaz. She broke up Sofia Coppola’s marriage to Spike Jonze.

It’s hilarious how well Faris and Coppola stick the knife into Diaz and then twist it.

This photo is interesting. Cameron is clowning Spike Jonze for the camera, and Catherine Keener looks like she wants to kill herself.

She will be back. She was stunning in her few dramatic roles. Hard to like her though with Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle co-starring Demi Moore and the pics of her with Justin Timberlake, flipping off photographers, the fortune she doesn’t deserve, her current emo rock husband.

You are probably right R16. The thing I find interesting about her is that she is truly your typical bubbly California blonde (an archetype she's very much played into), but she proved that she was capable of much more with her turns in "Being John Malkovich", "Vanilla Sky", and even that sci-fi flick she did with James Marsden, "The Box". She's done very well in darker material, which is weird. Watching interviews with her, she seems like a true valley girl in every sense of the word—not necessarily stupid, but not exactly someone who would be able to pull something off like she did in "Malkovich". She is an anomaly in that way.

I loved when she screamed "Suck my dick!" in John Cusack's face.

She’s underrated. She’s been really good in even shitty movies that got poor reviews.

"Isn't she half Spanish/Cuban in real life?"

Her dad is Cuban, her mom is "white" American with English and German ancestry. Cubans and Spanish aren't necessarily what we often think of as "Latin" - with darker skin and sometimes broader features. There are straight up "white" Cubans and Spaniards. So her looks make sense.

When she announced her retirement, some people on DL surmised that it was just a realization that she wasn't going to get roles -- she wasn't going to be one of those actresses that Hollywood finds a place for as they age. That said, while she may not get huge star roles, she could definitely come back and be cast in episodes of shows or as a side character in a movie. And who knows, maybe she'd luck into a regular spot in a series.

[quote] Her dad is Cuban, her mom is "white" American with English and German ancestry. Cubans and Spanish aren't necessarily what we often think of as "Latin" - with darker skin and sometimes broader features. There are straight up "white" Cubans and Spaniards. So her looks make sense.

I believe Christina Aguilera's dad is a white Ecuadorian too. If you turn on any Spanish-language TV station or look at Latino magazines, all you will see are people who are predominately to completely European descent with light hair, light eyes and light skin. Latin America was and is just as racist as The US with a very clear racial hierarchy. Most of the Cubans who left Cuba were actually white Cubans. Though like many Caribbean Latinos, Cubans have varying degrees of African blood and to a lesser extent Indigenous blood. Only Puerto Ricans have significant Indigenous blood but it's almost always compounded with a higher percent of African blood. Anyway, in many Latino countries, if you have white ancestors then you claim whiteness and it's encouraged to marry lighter. It's the opposite of The US where any non-white ancestor will make you become nonwhite.

Mexico and Central America have a deeper admixture of Indigenous blood and it's why they are generally darker-skinned and have Indigenous facial features. But again, the predominately European descended population there holds power and are overrepresented in the media and politics.

South American countries have a higher population of solely European people because many were immigrants who settled in the early 20th century, coming from places like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and France. Of course many people there are of Indigenous and African descent especially in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, Ecaudor but again those people aren't represented in politics or the popular media.

Some trivia: originally Keener was supposed to play the suffering wife and Diaz the pretty one. But they both decided it would be more interesting for them each to play off-character, so they asked if they could switch roles. Permission granted. And it was a great decision.

R22 it was a great decision, but I wonder if Cameron regretted it when Keener got an Oscar nomination and she didn't. That being said, I'm not sure Diaz's performance in that role would have been as interesting--if anything, it would've been kind of pedestrian. Her taking the role of Lotte was the better artistic choice, but it unfortunately didn't pay off as much as it should have.

[quote] Her dad is Cuban, her mom is "white" American with English and German ancestry. Cubans and Spanish aren't necessarily what we often think of as "Latin" - with darker skin and sometimes broader features. There are straight up "white" Cubans and Spaniards. So her looks make sense.

So stealth, Defarto. Another dumb race thread.

Troll thread.

When I watched this movie. I didn't even realized it was Cameron. She looked, sounded and acted completely different. She really deserves all praise for transforming herself. Best performance in the film especially compared to everyone else. Cusack was just being Cusack. Keener was just playing a bitch.

I liked how Cameron’s character crushed hard on Maxine (Keener) and tried to kiss her when they all got high (as did Craig). Also an under-the-radar film with LGBT themes since they end up together.

I love the movie and Diaz’s performance, but I wasn’t super happy about the ending regarding Craig (Cusack).

But I love some of the comedic stuff in this movie. It’s not as deep as they could have made it philosophically, but love the movie overall. Just a fun, weird romp with a little darkness in it.

She should have been nominated for Vanilla Sky.

She was so hatable in Vanilla Sky I can see why she wasn’t though.