Justin & Cameron: No more awkward moments

“Nah, we kinda know everything about each other!” Justin Timberlake quickly replied when asked if he and former girlfriend Cameron Diaz still found anything interesting and surprising about each other while doing Bad Teacher, Sony Pictures’ hit new comedy that’s set to open in the Philippines on Aug. 31.

The two stars met with this writer a couple of months ago during the LA junket for the movie. They were paired at the roundtable so when one asks Cameron a question, Justin would chime in and playfully answer the question himself. Cameron would likewise do the same during our freewheeling 20-minute interview with the two of the prettiest actors in Hollywood today.

“We are great friends. We knew we’d have fun together in this movie,” Justin continued but not after throwing in a number of funny stories and jokes.

“Yeah, nothing surprised me,” Cameron chimed in later after Justin finally quieted down. “I knew that he would do the job that he did so well because I know how funny he is and what he is capable and how talented he is.”

Although both stars were thrilled when they learned that they were going to make a movie together, there were apprehensive in the beginning on how the media will try to play up their pairing. “We knew that everybody would probably immediately make it into something that it wasn’t and we thought for a second, ëShould we not do it because of that?’” Cameron related. “We are adults. We know where we stand. We know what our relationship is and that’s all we need to know. They can say whatever they want to say as long as we can keep it out so that we can do our work because we didn’t want it to hurt the film.”

“It was a benefit that we knew each other and that we were friends,” Justin added. “I think that it takes a lot of chemistry to get on in film than not having any.” The actor was referring to one uproarious scene in the movie where he and Cameron engaged in what can only be described as the most innocuous sex scene in an R-rated film this year. “If it was anybody other than him, it would have been a totally awkward situation,” Cameron butted in. “We know where we stand. I didn’t have to worry about what lines were being crossed because we already knew what the lines were.”

In that particular scene, it is safe to say that Justin and Cameron sure make a very good couple on screen. They are so comfortable with each other that, at some point during the interview, Cameron even joked about a nonexistent rumor of Justin apparently being in the closet.

In Bad Teacher, Cameron plays Elizabeth Halsey, a, well, bad teacher whose main preoccupation is not to teach but to hang around singles bars every night in search of the rich guy who will marry her and make her instantly rich. Justin plays Scott, the quirky but wealthy and handsome new substitute teacher who becomes Elizabeth’s target towards the good life. Unfortunately, Elizabeth has to contend with a competitive co-teacher (played with absolute delight by talented British newcomer Lucy Punch) and a homely and middle-class P.E. instructor who is not so subtle in his admiration for her.

The ex-sweethearts in a scene from the film Bad Teacher

“Elizabeth really wasn’t a teacher,” Cameron explained. “She doesn’t go to school to do anything but sleep ó that is her time to catch up on her rest because her full-time job is trolling the bars at night for sugar daddies.” 

And that is not her ideal teacher.

A good teacher “is someone who actually teaches,” according to the actress who shared with us her own horrible experience with a bad teacher in high school who bullied her. “I had a teacher who was very mean to me. She was mean but she had a lot of knowledge and was probably a really good teacher of that knowledge but I wasn’t fond of her because she wasn’t nice to me.”

Cameron, who went to the same Long Beach high school with the rapper Snoop Dogg, further related that, “one day she just really pissed me off and that was it, it was over. It was like war. War. Crazy, like pulling hair!”

It wasn’t all that bad in high school for her though. “I had another teacher who was good and super nice but wasn’t interested in teaching. The thing that stood out to me was how well he treated everyone and how much fun I had in his class and that meant more to me and gave me more in my life than the teacher who wasn’t nice.”

And if you ask Cameron if she goes visit her old high school, the answer is, “No, I don’t.”

Justin was lucky he didn’t have to contend with nasty teachers in high school. The actor, who is currently on hiatus from his music career, was at the peak of his N’Sync career during his high school years that he took classes on the road.

“I was touring the world at the time that I was going through high school. I did my studies on the road and I did get to see the places in person that I was learning about. It was a pretty, pretty cool high school experience.”

Does Justin think he missed something by missing the kind of fun one could only have by going to an actual campus?

“No, I don’t,” he replied with a noticeable change in his voice; he turned a bit serious. “I don’t actually feel like I missed out. In fact, I feel like a gained a lot. There’s nothing really to do in Memphis, Tennessee but either get arrested or get someone pregnant so I got some tattoos on the road ó that was my life commitment.”

But Justin credits Memphis for his talent in writing and making music ó to which, Cameron completely agrees.