Sex Tape star Cameron Diaz taken aback by reaction to childless by choice comments

SHE’S stirred public debate with candid comments on not wanting children, but Cameron Diaz wishes she’d just said: “It’s really none of your business.”

IT’S rare to find a Hollywood actor who wants to talk about sex — on the record, at least.

But having just re-enacted every position in classic ’70s “how to” manual The Joy Of Sex in front of the camera, the prospect doesn’t faze Cameron Diaz or co-star Jason Segel at all.

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Big mistake ... Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel’s sex tape goes viral in their new comedy.

“Jason was the perfect partner to do this with,’’ says Diaz. “He and Jake (Kasdan, director) made me feel very safe. It was a locker room kind of vibe; we were teammates in it together. And you have to get naked as part of doing it.”

The natural, easygoing relationship Diaz has with Segel began with Bad Teacher (also directed by Kasdan, who is reportedly working on a sequel).

Red carpet ... Diaz and Segel attend the<i> Sex Tape </i>premiere in Westwood, California. Picture: Getty

Segel and regular collaborator Nicholas Stoller (Get Him To the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) wrote the Sex Tape screenplay — about a couple trying to reignite their physical relationship post-children — with Diaz in mind.

“She is so beautiful and so talented. Honestly, what I wanted to do as a writer was just set her up to hit home runs,’’ says Segel.

“And she did in every scene.”

Perfect match ... Diaz and Segel previously starred in <i>Bad Teacher</i> along with Justin Timberlake.

Segel’s appreciation, it seems, is entirely mutual.

“And I got to play off of Jason, who has the best balls in the biz,’’ Diaz jokes.

Despite its apparently risque premise, Sex Tape’s approach to the physical act itself is remarkably unselfconscious. Most of the film’s laughs are generated by what happens when the couple’s intimate video accidentally goes viral.

Segel lost 14kg to convincingly play Diaz’s husband.

“It was really important that the issue be really simple; that this couple love each other, are still very hot for each other, and don’t know how to make the time to express that to each other,’’ he says.

Love life ... Jay (Segel) and Annie (Diaz) try to put the spark back in their relationship in <i>Sex Tape</i>.

“So I didn’t want there to be anything confusing the situation, like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s because she is not attracted to him any more. Maybe it’s because he is so out of shape’.”

Segel grabbed the world’s attention with his now infamous full-frontal nude opening shot in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Baring all, he says, isn’t necessarily easier the second time around.

“I don’t really have a sense of pride or shame, but I must say as I have gotten older and I have developed a more meaningful relationship with my body, I take it a little more seriously. I take myself more seriously now.”

Infamous role ... Jonah Hill and a fully-clothed Segel in <i>Forgetting Sarah Marshall</i>.

Segel’s mother cried the first time she saw her son naked on screen.

After the initial shock had subsided, she sent a mass email to family members, giving them fair warning.

“I would like to inform you all that Jason has chosen to do full-frontal nudity,” she wrote. “However, it is not gratuitous and is essential to the plot.”

With Sex Tape, at least, she will be more prepared.

Locker room vibe ... Segel and Diaz fool around in a scene from <i>Sex Tape</i>.

“I have told her a couple of times: ‘There are a few shots of me that you are not going to be thrilled about. You see me naked doing a handstand which provides a view that ...’ Well, if she has ever seen it, it was probably when I was a child.”

Diaz laughs: “There is no reason for her to have seen that view.”

Reluctant to share ... Diaz attends a<i> Sex Tape </i>screening in New York.

Diaz isn’t particularly concerned about her own mother’s reaction to the film. (Her father, Emilio, died of pneumonia six years ago at the age of 58.)

“I don’t know if she wants to see it. I don’t think she needs to see it. But she could if she wanted to. I’m not going to tell her she can’t.”

Diaz and Segel take a more conservative stance, however, when it comes to the pitfalls of posting intimate moments on the internet.

“Especially for teenage girls,’’ says Segel, warning girls never to trust a teenage boy.

“You are not going to marry a 15-year-old boy. You are not sending that picture to your (future) husband!”

Adds Diaz: “What’s the point of having something like that even be a factor in your life? It doesn’t have to be.’’

She makes it perfectly clear she would never be so foolish herself and is not a big fan of social media, anyway.

“I tried Twitter for a couple of months and I really didn’t take to it.

“It’s just not my instinct to share what I am doing with the world or to look and see what other people are doing. I forget I even have the app on my phone.

“It doesn’t give me a particularly good feeling to see the negativity that’s out in the world, either.”

A family affair ... Diaz and Segel with on-screen children Giselle Eisenberg and Sebastian Thomas.

Diaz admits to being surprised by the intensity of the public debate surrounding her recent interview with Esquire magazine, in which she observed that life was easier without children.

“To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for — I didn’t take that on. A baby, that’s all day, every day for 18 years,’’ she told the magazine.

“Not having a baby might really make things easier, but that doesn’t make it an easy decision. I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother.”

In the present ... Diaz, with young co-star Giselle Eisenberg, doesn’t feel pressure to have a family.

For Diaz, the interest generated by her comments is part of a much larger and very complex cultural debate about how we view women: “What their purpose is, and what we are here for.

“People like to project,” she continues.

“I think (the reaction) comes from people wanting to feel good about their own decisions. Just because I don’t have children now, they might look at their life and think, ‘Oh, you have a choice? I didn’t have to do this yet?’

“I don’t really feel the pressure of it. I have never declared anything about whether I will or won’t have a family. Or whether I will or won’t get married.

“I am a very present person. I am very happy where I am at,’’ says Diaz, who has recently been linked to Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden.

Richie said she wanted to see Benji happy. “I am a devoted sister-in-law.”

Nicole Richie has taken credit for setting up Diaz and Benji Madden.

“I don’t know the future but I am very open to anything that might happen. If I decide I want to bring a child into my life, then when that day comes I will do it. But it’s not one of those things that I concern myself with at the moment.”

Now 41, Diaz has learnt, somewhat paradoxically, that it’s best not to take the public scrutiny of her private life personally.

She says if she had her time again, she would draw a line in the sand early on.

“Had I realised (how it would play out) when I was 25 or 35, I would have just said to people, ‘You know what, that’s a very personal question. It’s really none of your business’.”

Cameron Diaz looks stunning on the cover of the August issue of <i>Esquire</i>.

Originally published as Sex Tape star Cameron Diaz taken aback by reaction to childless by choice comments