Cameron Diaz Interview,The Box

Based on the short story by Richard Matheson, “The Box” stars Cameron Diaz as Norma Lewis and James Marsden as Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child who receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, played by Frank Langella, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world...someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the crosshairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.

We recently caught up with Cameron Diaz at Comic-Con to talk about her new movie directed by Richard Kelly. Here’s what she had to tell us about “The Box” as well as the upcoming “The Green Hornet” in which she stars opposite Seth Rogen:

Q: What does your character go through in this moral dilemma?

CD: For Norma, she saw Arlington herself so she already knows that what she saw was real, that this man had half a face. It’s already at this point, it’s unbelievable if you hear it, but since she’s seen it, she knows that it’s real, so it makes her feel that this is a possibility, what he’s saying is really true. She saw the money herself and he gave her $100 and he doesn’t know if the - - he wants to make sure the money’s real. He didn’t see him. He doesn’t know how real this is. And he takes it apart and sees that there’s nothing inside of it. There’s no way that this box can do what he says it can do because it’s just a box, it’s just a button. There’s nothing inside of it. There’s no transmitter, so they do go back and forth on it a lot but for the sake of moving the movie through, you see that there’s a moment where it’s just a button and they don’t really feel - - it’s funny because I think when the decision is made, in a weird way, I think that Norma just expects it to kind of not be real. Maybe nothing will happen and if it does, it’ll all be okay because it’ll be somebody we don’t know and somebody who probably deserves it because it could be a murderer on death row. All these things, she’s really just hoping, they’re hoping for the best.

Q: What attracted you to this departure of a role?

CD: I think overall, funny enough, I saw a beautiful love story in this movie as well. But I did like the existential part of this, like why people do what they do, what is it that we - - where are we coming from? Is there a hand that rests over us and kind of helps guide us? Is there somebody judging us? What is it that defines human beings? Can a decision like this be able to - - and I think it does, but is a decision like this, because the whole Arlington and his employers, basically it infers that there’s this bigger power that overlooks humanity and says, “We’re going to put you through this test and if you fail it, we’re going to see whether or not you’re willing to be here, if we’re going to let you stay here, if you’re worthy of staying here.” It’s sort of on a day to day basis, we make decisions that everyone does, that have repercussions. There’s no way you can make a decision without it having some sort of repercussion. This decision in particular being a moral one, I mean, it’s one of those really deep human questions. What would I do? Would I really take another human’s life? What would I take it for? A million dollars? Every day we push a button. We push a button every single day in some way or another by the decisions that we make on every level, from the food that we eat, the car that we drive. Every decision we make is pushing a button. Overall, are those decisions ultimately going to lead to our demise? Yes. Can they also lead to us flourishing? Yes. It’s a matter of whether we question ourselves on a day to day basis. What does this mean? What does this decision really mean? That’s what I saw in this film when I first read it.

Q: What scares you?

CD: Oh, you know what terrifies me? Trailers to horror movies. I can’t, I don’t, I just can’t watch them. I can’t watch ‘em. I hate horror movies but I’m always afraid that I’m going, because I kind of want to look but I’m always afraid I’m going to look too long and I’m going to see the one image that I’m not going to be able to get out of my head for at least a week every night before I’m going to bed. That’s the one. I just don’t like them.

Then there’s also the button you can get at Best Buys where you just poke - - is it Best Buy or the office supply one? Staples, the Easy Button, which is on the other hand too, how easy is it really? What does it really cost us to be easy?

Q: What are you looking forward to about Green Hornet?

CD: A lot of things. I’m very excited. I’m really excited to work with Michel Gondry and with Seth Rogen. Yeah, I’m just really, it’s exciting.

Q: Will you get to be funny?

CD: [shrugs, mouths “I don’t know.”] I’ll tell you when it happens.

“The Box” opens in theaters on November 6, 2009.