Cameron Diaz stars in What to Expect When You’re Expecting and had to truly get into the mind of an expectant mother, more so than her co-stars. Where Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Banks had the experience of motherhood under their belt, the actress had to cull from personal experiences, such as her sister’s giving birth. Diaz is at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills talking about her new movie and lets Movie Fanatic in on a few set secrets and revelations that may rock your world (such as the sociological reasons for breasts sagging!).
“I was in Africa and the Maasai women, who are spending the whole day working, obviously their breasts are hanging down when they give birth and they go right back to work. Like a couple hours later they just strap the baby on the back and they keep going. Well, when you have a baby on your back for a year and a half and you're nursing, what you have to do is you throw your breast over your shoulder, because you can't stop working,” she said.
“The baby is strapped to the back, so it suckles or you put it underneath your arm, so the baby can take it behind and suckle while you still keep working. There's an actual function for saggy titties! It’s because you have to feed your child. Isn't that funny why we have boobs? We have them so we can feed our children. I know there's a belief that you're not supposed to feed your children with your breast, but that’s what it’s for. It's functional. It's not just a trend. The women literally keep working.”
Thanks for sharing, Cameron! Now, when it came to getting into the mindset of a pregnant woman, the actress found inspiration from her sibling. “I saw my sister give birth both ways. First time, it was a C-section, which nobody told me about at twenty-five. My sister was like, ‘I'm not going to have this baby if you're not in the room.’ I was like, ‘No, you're going to have this baby no matter what.’ So, they were doing a C-section, and there was blood everywhere -- my sister's guts out on a platter, and somebody inside her cutting. I was looking at her and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ The second delivery was vaginal and that was crazy! No man should ever see that.”
Diaz plays a famous fitness guru in What to Expect When You're Expecting who discovers she’s pregnant by her professional partner from a Dancing with the Stars-inspired show. Good thing the actress makes being physically fit a mainstay in her life. That part of her character was not so much of a stretch.
“You have to be consistent with fitness, but what was fun about that part was that I love to work out. It’s something I enjoy doing. I think it’s important to take care of your body, not just for today, but for the rest of your life,” Diaz said. “I stay fit because I want to be sixty and still doing all the things I'm doing now.”
Even her What to Expect When You’re Expecting filming schedule was conducive to keeping her active. “Being in one place and being able to train consistently, eat properly, and then dance for a whole week, you know how it changes your body. All those movements help to make the body a little bit tighter.”
That dancing she’s speaking of is a scene where Morrison and Diaz are moving like pros in a sequence captured from the onscreen reality show. Having the Glee star, who is also a professional dancer, as a partner was invaluable.
“He's amazing. He is just the loveliest human being on the face of the planet, and so talented, so charming and so smart. I was so lucky to be able to be his partner, not only in dance, but also in us having a baby together. We don't know where it's at right now, after it was born,” Diaz said, laughing. “It’s a movie baby, so they just took it from us, and it went somewhere else.”
Morrison shared a story about when he first met Diaz on the set: She called him into a tent to show him her… well, “pregnant” breasts. Diaz confirmed that did happen. “He got to see my prosthetic breasts, which were really amazing. I was like, "Wow, those are awesome,’” Diaz said and cackled. “Then when they put them on, in the Atlanta heat, I aged about forty years by the end of two hours! They were literally hanging down to my hips. But, that’s what they’re supposed to do… right?”
According to Diaz and her story of African women, sure Cameron… that’s right.