I am so excited! Check out this Annie movie interview I had while in New York with Cameron Diaz and Bobby Cannavale. Cameron Diaz plays the mean, drunk, and worn down foster parent, Miss Hannigan. Bobby Cannaval plays a shrewd and scheming campaign advisory to Will Gluck in the new ANNIE movie. I was able to screen the movie prior to interviewing them allowing me to really understand the characters that they both play.
First of all, let me tell you how excited I was to be in that interview room with this amazing opportunity. Plus, this movie was not only filled with very talented veteran actors and actresses, and they were so genuine and happy to be there! Usually in these interview events the room is filled with lots of press and even publicists. This time around with it was just 5 of us bloggers and Cameron and Bobby. So this interview you are reading here is EXCLUSIVE. You aren’t going to find these quotes anywhere else.
Cameron Diaz walks in the room saying, “Wazzzzup?” She had a sweet smile and like always looked stunning! Bobby Cannaval was Mr. handsome and a very sweet throughout the interview.
ANNIE Movie Interview
Question: What was your favorite part of the movie?
Bobby: I loved doing Easy Street! It is all about Easy Street.
Cameron: It was a lot of rehearsal and Bobby says that he had never danced before. It was his first time leading, but don’t believe him at all.
Bobby: Dancing does not come natural to me.
Cameron: It does. I witnessed it.
Bobby. It was because it was for the part. That was the only way I could have done it. I was never the type of person who would call my friends and be like, “lets go dancing”. But for work it is like gaining 100 lbs to play a guy that is over weight. It is for the part. And she is the best partner. She just attacks it. We were very sympatico the way we attacked it. Like Sports or something.
Cameron: Very athletic. Yeah we were like high fiving each other. Like “YEAH”.
Bobby. That dance was a lot more simple when we started then how it ended up because we were getting it so quickly. Then they surround us by professional dancers and it make it all look a lot better. But I also like that number because to me it is the most natural setting for us to start dancing…because there are people around us that are dancing. That is really why I did that part was because of THAT to do that number.
Question: So are you ready for Dancing With The Stars?
Bobby: I am not even ready to start WATCHING Dancing With The Stars.
Question: I read that your two biggest fears were heights and singing in front of people. So how did you overcome those fears?
Cameron: Well to overcome heights I jumped out of an airplane and scaled a 1,000 foot face of a mountain. Not at the same time clearly but a separate times. I cried the entire time at both of them. Not unlike this experience. It was terrifying. It isn’t like karaoke. You aren’t expected to sing well because people know you are lubed up with a little liquor but with this one I knew I had to perform like I could sing. And that is what was terrifying because to me I didn’t know what that voice would sound like….I charged toward it. Lots of tears…sweating perfusely. (Then she imitates sweating and running out of breath.)
It was kind of terrifying. It was terrifying. You know what. The thing I feel about fear is that you can’t run from it. If you run from fear, it jumps on your back and takes you down. If you look at fear, you say yeah motha-f**** lets go and you run toward it and you jump on it, your chances are better that you are going to win.
Question: Do you feel you have overcome both of those fears?
Cameron: Yes. NO! I have now done them both but I am still scared of heights and singing in front of people with a voice that is supposed to be able to perform, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t do either of them again. It just means that it is scary and I CAN do it again.
Question: So tell me, you have done a lot of physical comedy in your movies in the passed. Is this something you worked with the producer and director yourself or did you improvise.
Cameron and Bobby laughed about an inside joke about line readings with the director. She talked about how she performed the physical part of “Little Girls.” It was filmed the last day and she had to do it all in ONE shot. She was like lets do it! She did it in two takes, a front end and a backend. It was the first time she had done it.
Question: Only two takes?
Cameron: I had a few takes. But what you see was my rehearsal. Physically, my job is demanding but you just attack it and that is what you do.
Bobby: You establish these great relationships with these choreographers (lists names) and they just got us to feel confident. We were rehearsing in a dance studio for months. Then we were in this big concrete with pillars. We never rehearsed with pillars before. There is a confidence you already got with this for months of doing it. We had things that we added like the end thing when I dipped you (to Cameron).
This part of the interview Bobby and Cameron answer the question about life lessons from Annie.
Question: In the movie you get what you want by any needs necessary. Are you like that in real life?
Bobby: OH I am not. No. I am nearly not that ambitious. If I am I am not that naked about it. Not like that guy, he wears it all on his sleeve. No, I am not. To a fault really….I really keep it low profile.
Question: What is your thought about taking the traditional Annie and bringing in to the new Annie movie?
Bobby: For me I like that movie as well. I didn’t feel I needed to go back and watch it. It isn’t the same time.
Cameron: We really made this movie for the generation that didn’t see the original Annie. To them this is going to be the only Annie that they know. These kids don’t label these the same ways we label things.
A Broadway classic that has delighted audiences for generations comes to the big screen with a new, contemporary vision in Columbia Pictures’ comedy Annie. Director/Producer/Screenwriter Will Gluck teams with producers James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith & Will Smith, Caleeb Pinkett, and Shawn “JAY Z” Carter, Laurence “Jay” Brown, and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith with a modern telling that captures the magic of the classic characters and original show that won seven Tony Awards. Celia Costas and Alicia Emmrich serve as Executive Producers. The screenplay is by Will Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna, based on the musical stage play “Annie,” book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and on “Little Orphan Annie,” © and ® Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
If you enjoyed this ANNIE Movie Interview With Cameron Diaz and Bobby Cannavale be sure to check out the movie! Annie Movie will be in theaters on December 19th! Visit the official Annie website!