| Candid Cameron |
(April Cosmo) Dressed in a 19th century bonnet and a mountain of petticoats, Cameron Diaz cuts an unlikely figure as she bustles through the streets of old New York (built to order on the outskirts of Rome, would you believe). After all, it seems but five cinematic minutes since we watched her and close pals Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu vamping it up to their perfectly plucked eyebrows, racing around in flash cars and kicking villanous butts as Charlie's Angels. Glossy, sexy and fun, it was a million miles - and a century and a half - from the film-making taking place here in Italy's famous Cinecitta studios, where Martin Scorsese is hard at work creating his latest epic, Gangs of New York. Forget eyebrows, this is high brow, even though the director himself hopes that Diaz (who pipped Anna Friel to the part), along with her co-star Leonardo Dicaprio, will tempt a huge, main-stream audience to part with their cash. There's violence, passion, political intrigue, corruption and romance in this tale of feuding Irish and Italian gangs and one man's lust for revenge. Dicaprio plays the wonderfully named Amsterdam Vallon, head of the equally wonderfully named Dead Rabbits, who vows vengence on the man who killed his father, played by Daniel Day Lewis. Amid the squalor and beatings there's a love story too. Enter Diaz as Jenny, the small-time pickpocket, sometime prostitute and full-time survivor, who steals the heart of Amsterdam and dreams of running away to a new life far from the Big Apple's mean streets. During filming, Diaz has been kept hard at work in Rome (used for reasons of cost, and because virtually nothing remains of 1860s New York in the city itself). And, on those rare moments off, she has managed to win the hearts of the soccer-mad locals by turning up to see Lazio beat rivals Roma 1-0 (and wisely not saying which team she was cheering for), has been photographed leaving a restaurant with Leo, and has even disturbed a burglar in her hotel room. But when it comes to any more specifics about on or off-set action, Diaz, like the rest of the cast - remains as secretive as a gangster's moll. "I'm sorry, I just can't talk about it yet," she tells me. "Except to say that its a real thrill to work with Marty." Scorsese, don't forget is the director's and actor's director, a man so
revered that to be cast in one of his films - think Taxi Driver, Goodfellas,
Casino - is to receive a badge of honour. The King of Credibility will tell
you that its a thrill to work with Ms Diaz too, who wasn't even born when he
started making movies (she turns 29 in August).
"The nature of this picture is huge, there's no doubt about it. I don't know
if it will be a blockbuster, but I guess in a way it has to try to be,"
Scorsese explains. "We've done a lot of research and I hope we have an
intelligent approach to that world at that time, but its also fantastical.
Its like Mad Max in 1860, this view of gangs and what they were like." Asked
why he cast Cameron and Leonardo, he states "Because they are both very, very
good actors, that's why." |
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