Naturally, everyone expected her to either vanish into whatever modelling background she'd sprung from, or be typecast as the blonde bombshell forever. She was just 21 when The Mask was released and had only started taking acting lessons after winning the part of gangster's moll Tina Carlyle. So imagine the surprise when she followed up The Mask with black-comedy drama The Last Supper ('95) and rom-coms She's The One ('96), Feeling Minnesota ('96) and My Best Friend's Wedding ('97). None were very successful, but Diaz clearly had some degree of talent that The Mask didn't especially utilize.
A co-starring role in Danny Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary ('97), alongside Ewan McGregor, sank with audiences, but she really made everyone sit up again playing Mary in the Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary. Her comedy timing and generally pleasant down-to-earth character was bewitching, and the sight of her with a stuck-up fringe (the result of semen being mistaken for mousse) became one of the 90s defining comic images. After that, Diaz made a notable play for critical respect in Being John Malkovich ('99), by hiding her sparkling beauty beneath a rat's nest hairdo in one of mainstream cinema's strangest movies. The role earned her nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and SAG awards.
But super-stardom came her way when Diaz accepted the call to become one of the new Charlie's Angels ('00) It was perfect casting -- allowing Diaz to show-off her beauty again, but in the context of a strong, action-packed, light and frothy Girl Power adventure -- with some hot dance scenes. A less successful sequel followed in 2003, but in the interim Diaz bagged herself a big pay-day by voicing Princess Fiona in Shrek ('01) and its resulting sequels, starred opposite Tom Cruise in a rare villainous role in Vanilla Sky ('01), and appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York. It was clear that Diaz was being taken more seriously, even if she did co-star in atrocious chick flick The Sweetest Thing ('02).
Sadly, the Shrek films seemed to arrive at a period of slowdown post-Charlie's Angels 2. In Her Shoes ('05) and The Holiday ('06) went mostly unnoticed and this year's What Happens In Vegas (with Ashton Kutcher) doesn't look like it's reversed her fortunes. She's just finished filming The Box for director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), a horror that's a marked twist away from the light-and-breezy chick flicks she seems to gravitate towards, and is currently filming My Sister's Keeper – a courtroom drama co-starring Alec Baldwin. Shrek Goes Fourth is also in the pipeline for a 2010 release.
I like Cameron Diaz. She was the best thing in those Charlie's Angels movies, through pure enthusiasm and statuesque gorgeousness, and she's never been embarrassing in her serious roles (excellent in Being John Malkovich, decent enough in Gangs Of New York.) It's actually very strange that her most lucrative role is voicing a cartoon in the Shrek films, as a lot of her appeal in films is what you get visually.
She's one of those actresses who genuinely light up the screen with a mega-watt smile – so much so that, even when the films she's in flop, you can never point the finger at her. She might not have very much range as an actress, but she knows how to play to her strengths and has a buoyant personality that makes you smile. And yes, those perfect legs really help.
Name: Cameron Michelle DiazBirthdate: 30 August 1972
Birthplace: San Diego, California, USA
