Cameron Diaz gets "Bad" on the red carpet
(CBS) Cameron Diaz is taking a new direction with her latest movie: playing a bad girl on the big screen.
The actress stars in "Bad Teacher," a raunchy comedy in which she portrays a pot-smoking alcoholic teacher bent on saving up money for breast implants in order to seduce a fellow teacher, played by Diaz's real-life former beau Justin Timberlake.
We caught up with Diaz at the film's New York red carpet premiere, and she said it was fun getting to play the bad girl.
"I think that's why everyone loves Elizabeth (her character in "Bad Teacher"). Because they wish that they could be her," Diaz told us.
"You know, they really do," she added, "I think that they wish that for one...even for an hour, that they could say, you know, exactly what's on their minds and not feel guilty about it later on, you know? And suffer the consequences of [as she makes air quotes] the conscience."
Diaz's other co-star in the film, Jason Segel, also talked about the parallels between himself and his charcter's infatuation with Diaz.
"[My character] has sights on Cameron Diaz and relentlessly hits on her and is not rebuffed by her telling him no...which is very much like me in real life," Segal, perhaps jokingly, admitted, "I tried...I really tried to make it work with Cameron. She didn't...wasn't having it."
"Bad Teacher" opens nationwide on Friday.
