Cameron Diaz Breaks Down 14 Looks, From The Holiday to Back in Action | Life in Looks | Vogue

When I was taking pictures, my face started twitching really, really bad. When I was like a wall of photographers and all the flashes was going off, my face was like glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. So I'm sure there's a lot of pictures of my face like glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. Hello Vogue, I'm Cameron Diaz, and this is my life in looks, and it's in a book. Let's check it out. Let's see. Ah, the very beginning. This look was for the mask. It was my character, Tina Carlisle. She was a lounge singer. I got this part by the skin of my teeth, because I was a model and nobody knew who I was, and I was not an actress. So there was no reason for anybody to hire me. Chuck Russell, the director, who was the man who discovered me, said, you're my Tina, let me get you here, and there she is, Tina. And that costume was made. It was my first costume that I ever wore. This dress was really cool, because it was like very beaded, and when I danced, everything swung around, and it was meant to be like the seductress dress. Jim Carrey was incredible, so much fun. He was also who made me want to make movies, because I had never worked with an actor before, and he was just so wildly talented, and we had so much fun on that movie. The week we wrapped our movie, Ace Ventura came out, and everything changed for Jim, and so everything changed for me. Oh, you guys put these pictures like right in on the pages. That's a lot of work, you guys. Oh, look at that kid. Back in the day, there were no stylists. Red carpets and premieres and all those things. You just wore your clothes. That was a Dolce & Gabbana cashmere leopard print sweater that I had. A pair of pants. God, I can't remember what they were. They were almost like a wetsuit material. They were like neoprene, almost. The shoes that I had on, they were like Star Trek boots. They looked like Captain Kirk boots. What was the name of that boot, the men's shoes? Floor Shines. They were Floor Shine boots, and they were men's boots, and I was obsessed with them, so I would wear those with everything, but this was just like an outfit out of my own clothes, and my hair, when I did the cover of Vanity Fair, I had that day, I was at my apartment, and Chris McMillan and I have been friends, the hair stylists have been friends since we were kids, like I was since I was like 17, and he cut, I was like, just cut off my hair, and we like cut all my hair off and made it a pixie cut, and then did like a purple toner in it, and I showed up to Annie Leibovitz, and she was like, she was like, I still have that sweater, I do. I probably have the pants similar too. So this is from, there's something about Mary. This is at the golf range, when I'm literally hitting a golf ball for the first time in my life. Yeah, I really love to play golf now too, yeah. So it kind of sparked my love for swinging the club, you know what I mean? Oh my God, so the first time I read the script, I literally fell off my bed laughing. There's this description in the scene where my brother Earl like punches him in the throat, and for some reason, like the thought of him punching him in the throat was the funniest thing to me, and I just like started laughing so hard I fell off the bed, and I knew I had to do the movie. What's the next one gonna be? Oh, Lottie from Being John Malkovich. What a fun character to play, I love that movie so much. We had so much fun making this movie, it was just like off the cuff kind of, you know, we got to be in our own world. I loved being Lottie, I loved putting in, I had my brown contacts, I had my teeth, I had my wig, I had everything, and I was just so content as Lottie, and I had my chimpanzee, and I was just very simple, and I really loved being Lottie. It's funny because I also wore this outfit in the real world, and people would be like, are you Cameron Diaz? And I'm like, no, I'm not. And they're like, yeah, you are, I know your voice. And I'd be like, no, I'm not. And then I'd get really embarrassed, and because they'd be like, yes, you are. And I'm like, recognize me? And it was so frustrating. And then there were people who were just like, I had no idea it was you. Okay, voila. So this dress was made for me by Versace. It's one of my favorites, I love it so much. It's such a beautiful, like, wisp of a dress. It was for, after Charlie's Angels, the first Charlie's Angels. I can tell because of the eyebrows and the hair color. Me and Helena Christensen drove together in a limo. We went to the Oscars together, and yeah, it was really fun. It's just changed. So the red carpet used to be a lot more relaxed. Like you weren't like, there wasn't a ton of interviews. There was just like a red carpet. You walk through, you'd say hi, you'd wave, you'd stop for a second. There wasn't a lot of like, how now? It's like you have to show up, do 30 interviews before you go and stop for a camera that does the 360 and the nails and the whole like, you know, fashion of it all. As you can see, I was just walking into the Oscars. There was like, somebody said, can you take a picture? I was like, sure. Hi. That was it, that was it. Charlie's Angels. This outfit was a pair of pants that I owned that were Chloe pants from when Stella was at Chloe. And I loved them so much. They were pants I used to wear all the time. And I couldn't find a pair of pants that I wanted to wear for the scene. So we had them made for the movie. And we just had a blast. We were at Soul Train and like dancing. And it was ridiculous. I mean, Charlie's Angels. So we trained basically seven days a week, eight hours a day for three months to learn our kung fu. And this was with our master Chen Yan. It was a time that completely transformed my life. All of a sudden I was strong and capable. And that was like my journey out to starting, you know, to just take care of my body and the strength in it. That's the amazing thing about making movies. You get to learn all these things from masters, like true masters, people who are, you know, the best of the best. And they impart their knowledge on you. And you get to learn a skillset that you would never be able to learn otherwise, you know, unless you really dedicated your life to something. We get to learn it in like a month or two. Of course, we don't know it at that level. We don't know it at their level, but we get a little bit of their magic. And that's really fun to be able to then translate it into the film. So let's see what's next. Aha! This was obviously for the Golden Globes, 2002, nominated for Vanilla Sky. For me, red carpets have always been about like feeling comfortable and like myself. And I am always like, let me be a little underdressed. I feel more comfortable underdressed than overdressed. That's just my vibe. And so this was one of those outfits that I really loved because I was just like, I feel like I'm wearing a t-shirt dress. I did Vanilla Sky and Gangs of New York at the same time. I was filming both movies. I was going between the two. So I was in Italy doing Gangs of New York, and then I would fly back and do Vanilla Sky. And then I'd fly back and do Gangs of New York. And then I'd fly back and do Vanilla Sky. And then I got back to Gangs of New York. And I was working with masters. I was working with Martin Scorsese and Daniel Day Lewis. And I was working with Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe. And, you know, I was just in the middle of something I felt very, you know, lucky to be a part of. So what's next? Ah, there was Jenny from Gangs of New York, which was the most spectacular costumes. Sandy Powell, who is obviously the most iconic costume designer in Hollywood, she made these incredible pieces. It was just such an honor to get to wear. My character was a pickpocketer. That was her way of making a living. And when I got to Italy, they introduced me to a man they called The Magician. And he was a professional pickpocketer. He showed me the art of picking pockets. So I would practice on set all the time. But what I found quite extraordinary was he had a family. He put his kids through college. He like was legit. It's all like distraction. You know, you touch a person one place while you're touching him in another place. So like you put more pressure on one place. It's just like, oh, this arm, you're like this. Well, your other hand's going in here. I haven't practiced still for a while. I'm not boasting any real skill. But at the time I had a few tricks up my sleeve. Aha, yes. This is from The Sweetest Thing. Christina Applegate, of course. We play best friends in this movie. We had a blast. It was ridiculous. It's funny because it's one of those things where this was a movie written by a woman, directed by a man. And so it was in the spirit of sort of like women who were more like men than women in the sort of like idea of like relationship and these girls that didn't want to have, that were just like having carefree and having fun and get caught up in a little bit of, you know, a romance. Oh, by the way, I had to finish Gangs of New York because I was starting this movie. And Martin Scorsese was like, do you, are you really? I was like, Marnie, I've been here for six months. I love it. I don't want to leave. I love you. I want to stay in Italy, but I have to go do this movie that I've been, you know, I was supposed to do, I'm slated to do. Aha, The Holiday. This was, of course, one of the best wardrobes. Nancy Myers and I spent the whole, a whole day in a room full of cashmere. Like just like wall to wall to wall to wall to wall. Everywhere around us was racks and racks of cashmere. And we just went through it and pulled out all these really fun, soft, delicious cashmerey outfits. And we had the wardrobe for the holiday, like pretty much in a day. Aha, Valentino at the Golden Globes. Beautiful dress. I loved it. It was between Miss Valentino and another Valentino. I put the other dress on and I went to get into the car and I couldn't sit down. So I went back in and I changed into this dress. And I was so glad I did because I think it's such a beautiful dress. I had dyed my hair dark. I think just because it's just a choice that I got to make for myself. I loved it. I love having dark hair. Oh, so this was for the Met Gala Christian Dior. I remember this was just, I loved this color and I wanted to pair it with something jewelry-wise completely different. I didn't want to wear diamonds. So I went and I picked out those earrings and necklace and had them bring it for that ball. And this was, Rachel Zoe helped me with this gown. And ah, yes. So this is the 82nd Academy Awards, Oscar de la Renta. Just a beautiful gown. Like to me, this was like the most gown gown that I've ever worn to a red carpet. That was just like, I felt like it was a princess gown. The next morning, I came into my trailer and for some reason, like the fashion police was on. Remember this, that thing, like the fashion police? And the commentator was talking about how my hair looked like so, like she didn't understand why I would do my hair that way. And I remember looking at it when she said that and her hair was exactly like mine. I was like, huh. It's been so long since I did a red carpet. I don't know how evolved I am at this moment. We'll find out. I'm about to do my first red carpet in, I don't know, 10 years. You know, I always kind of approach it the same way. It just has to feel for me like effortless. I don't like to feel like I'm putting anything on. Fashion is fun. I enjoy it, but it's sort of like when you're standing in front of the world like that, you really just want to be in something that makes you feel at ease. So that's what I always look for. Well, there it is. The reason why we're all here. My Vogue Mexico cover. What a day. It was my first cover shoot since I took a 10 year break. And I was asked, what would you want to do? I felt like I wanted to reach an audience that has always been so wonderful to me. And so the opportunity for Vogue Mexico came up and I said, I would love to, if they would have me. And there I am. Well, thank you so much for having me, Vogue. And I will sign off, literally. I haven't done that in a long time. It's called an autograph.