Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel on ‘Sex Tape’

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel on ‘Sex Tape’

Interview by DAVE ITZKOFF

Q. This is the second comedy you’ve made together, after “Bad Teacher.” Are you more comfortable working with each other now?

CAMERON DIAZ Oh, after this movie, we are real comfortable.

JASON SEGEL To do something like this has the potential to be very awkward. But we share a mentality that, when it comes to comedy, the bottom line is it being as funny as it can possibly be, and that involves being pride free. That could have been awkward with a different partnership. But we laughed so much more than we cringed.

Cameron, do people assume you’re game for anything after “There’s Something About Mary”?

DIAZ I think that film opened up movies to a certain kind of comedy, and then there was a run of movies trying to accomplish that tone again. Certainly, I received a few, head-on, right after, until it was clear that that was a one-off for me.

Jason, do people make the same assumption because you were naked in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”?

SEGEL It actually had a function in “Sarah Marshall,” besides just shock value. One of the pitfalls of a romantic comedy is that you know how it’s going to end. The guy and the girl on the poster are going to end up together. I felt like if the main guy showed his [penis], you’re forced to sit back and say, I have no idea what’s going to happen in this movie. 

How do you avoid those pitfalls in “Sex Tape”?

SEGEL It’s a proper sex romp. It’s also a bit of a caper, in the vein of “Adventures in Babysitting.” Once this night begins, it really does become an adventure. It also tackles this really relatable issue about, how does a couple keep their relationship fresh? We’ve been together for 14 years in the movie — how do we keep the sex and the love alive? 

DIAZ The script isn’t just the sex fantasy of it all. It’s still a story about people who love one another.

On a movie like this, do you tackle the more intimate sequences right away, or save them until the end?

SEGEL I have really exciting news for the audience. There is so much sex in the movie, there’s no way, schedule-wise, to load it up. We did really risqué stuff, throughout the shoot, in different locations.

DIAZ We had to share our nakedness with Jake [Kasdan, the film’s director] every day, too. 

SEGEL In the making of the sex tape — which I won’t go into too much — Jake operated the camera during those scenes. It was just the three of us in a room, which was really intimate, but it certainly made us feel much safer than if there were boom guys and lighting guys while she and I were doing some of the things that we did.

And then you do everything possible to prevent that footage from getting into the wrong hands?

DIAZ That was on lockdown.

SEGEL Obviously, my biggest dream in life would be for that footage to get into the wrong hands.

If “Sex Tape” is a huge hit, what impact do you think it will have on movies?

DIAZ There’s just going to be a lot of real sex tapes. Pretty much, Google any other name and then “sex tape.” You will see a sex tape.

SEGEL That was our master plan. This movie is pro-sex tape.

DIAZ We’re saying, basically, to save your marriage, you must make a sex tape. There’s plenty of marriages out there that will find that out.