We're Hangin' With....CAMERON DIAZ

Charlie's Angel Cameron Diaz provides the voice of the feisty Princess Fiona in the new Dreamworks computer-animated film Shrek (opens May 18th). We spoke with Cameron recently about her first turn at voicing an animated character and found her to be fascinated with the film and its technology and proud of the chance to play Fiona.

Q: Why did you take this role in an animated film and how did you learn about it?

A: Jeffrey Katzenberg contacted me. I was really excited when they said Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow were doing this. I was like 'Sign me up!'. I was really flattered that they would consider adding me to the mix. They told me what it was about and I thought that sounds great. I thought it would be really fun to play the character and have that for my niece and nephew. Before (in other films like this) you weren't made so aware of the actors doing the voices. It's great to show a different side of yourself as well. It's rare to play a princess out of a fairy tale in (live action) movies."

Q: Tell us about your character.

A: Fiona is a princess locked in a tower. She's had a curse put on her and she's been waiting to be rescued by her prince, her knight in shining armor. She's been waiting quite some time, tapping her foot, waiting for that moment. But I think she's gone out for a couple of burgers a few times. It's not too hard to get out of the castle for her. She's gotten caught up in the fairy tale idea of what a princess is all about. She also has a bit of a secret that she's hiding from the rest of the world that she's afraid to reveal. She knows how other people will react because it's how she reacts to Shrek when she first meets him. So she's been waiting for Prince Charming to break her spell.

Q: How did you feel when you first saw the animated Fiona and how the film looked in general?

A: I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was this person! It doesn't really look like me but she shares the same gestures and movements and voice. I wasn't prepared for the gestures, the essence of me in the character. The way light is used in the film is great. It appears to give texture to the plants and skin. I thought, wow! That's so realistic. It's almost reality but it's done with technology. It's unbelievable.

Q: What's your favorite scene in the film?

A: (laughing) My favorite part of the film was the gingerbread man who is being interrogated and he's like 'You're asking me about the muffin man, the muffin man? Yes, the muffin man". He's got his little legs broken off. It killed me. I fell over. Where did this come from? Out of nowhere and it's devious and sick (but funny). I loved it. I also just learned that the pouring of a glass of milk (to go with the gingerbread cookie) was technically the most difficult shot. That there was a guy working for 3 years on pouring the milk into a glass. It's amazing.

Q: Any final impressions?

A: Just that I'm really proud to be a part of this. It's great!