- Title: GERMANY: Cameron Diaz talks in Berlin about the movie 'Bad teacher'
- Date: 20th June 2011
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JUNE 17, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAMERON DIAZ SAYING: "It's pretty fun. [LAUGHS] It's one of the major reasons why I did this film. It's that I thought, wow, this is a character that I don't ever have to apologize for. And she gets to say whatever she wants to say, however she wants to say it, and she doesn't have any ... she never suffers repercussions because she doesn't care. I though damn, everybody wants to be that person for at least a day, I get to be her for 6 weeks and then go back to real life." BRANDENBURG GATE SQUARE IN FRONT OF BRANDENBURG GATE AND PAN TO HOTEL ADLON VARIOUS OF PHOTO-OP ON ROOFTOP OF ADLON HOTEL WITH CAMERON DIAZ (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAMERON DIAZ SAYING: "No, I don't think anyybody has one exactly like that. But I'm sure most teachers are sort of on the brink of becoming that teacher. You know they've got like 30 kids in front of their faces all day long. I'm sure they think: 'God I could totally use a drink right now.' And I probably had some teachers that were you know at the time dabbling a bit just to get through the day. But I didn't have any quite as terrible as her."
- Embargoed: 5th July 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany, Germany
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA7WNS4FCSN78XD6TMCU8W70QUJ
- Story Text: She drinks, she smokes weed, she swears. What looks like a serious case of teenage rage is actually the life of Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) in the movie 'Bad teacher'.
The sexy blonde without any pedagogic ambitions is actually only on the search for a wealthy boyfriend. But when her rich finance leaves her she has to bite the bullet and in fact go back to teaching - a horror for Elizabeth who whiles away the hours in the classroom with a little nap or a little sip of something alcoholic. In short, Elizabeth is the worst teacher that one can imagine, and that also does not go unnoticed by the ambitious Amy (Lucy Punch) who is determined to expose her colleague as a lazy wanna-be.
It's not that Elizabeth doesn't care for children, she just sees them as an annoyance in her quest for the money-bag. Even her gift of the gab, however, is powerless to prevent the humiliation that begins her journey to a redemption of sorts.
"It's pretty fun," Diaz told Reuters in Berlin before the Germany premiere. "It's that I thought, wow, this is a character that I don't ever have to apologize for. And she gets to say whatever she wants to say, however she wants to say it, and she doesn't have to any ... she never suffers repercussions because she doesn't care. I though damn, everybody wants to be that person for at least a day, I get to be her for 6 weeks and then go back to real life," Diaz laughs.
And when the albeit geeky but handsome new supply teacher Scott (Justin Timberlake), who happens to be heir to just the sort of fortune she considers her birthright, appears on the scene, war breaks out between the two female teachers .
Elizabeth is convinced that she'll have a much better chance with him if she gets breast implants. It's just that a teacher's salary is never going to stretch to such weighty assets. But when Elizabeth learns of a charity car wash competition, she steps up her game - donning a teeny-tiny pair of denim shorts and frolicking in the soap suds.
Elizabeth in the film is ready to do almost anything - inside and outside the class room - to get her way. Diaz says she can associate with a certain weariness of the teaching profession: "I'm sure most teachers are sort of on the brink of becoming that teacher. You know they've got like 30 kids in front of their faces all day long. I'm sure they think: 'God I could totally use a drink right now.'" But she said that the character she is playing is totally fictional, but, "I didn't have any quite as terrible as her," she said.
The shooting of 'Bad teacher' brought Diaz back into the arms of her real life ex Justin Timberlake - albeit only temporarily. Diaz gushes about working with the 'Sexy Back' singer. "Justin is amazing, he and I are very good friends and we love each other, we want great things for each other," the blonde actress told Reuters. "He is so talented, and he was just the perfect person for the part, that was a no-brainer for us. We just kind of went: Justin Timberlake has to play this part, he'll kill it. And he did! He did an amazing job, and I loved working with him because I trust him."
'Bad Teacher' opens on June 23 in German cinemas. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
