Cameron Diaz was inspiring women to take control of their bodies long before her new tome, "The Body Book," hit shelves in December 2013. The 41-year-old actress -- and advocate for female empowerment -- works with Tag Heuer as an ambassador to support an international campaign that raises awareness for UN Women’s gender equality and women’s economic empowerment programs globally.
Diaz helped the luxury Swiss watch brand celebrate the opening of an NYC flagship store on Fifth Avenue on Tuesday (Jan. 28) and took the time to speak with The Huffington Post about her involvement with Tag Heuer, her new book and how she feels about her own body:
You're a huge role model for women, especially younger women. What would you tell them about loving their bodies?
What I would tell women is that your body is your responsibility. It's your body, nobody else can take care of it and you really, truly do not know what body you have and what your body is capable of until you been consistent with meeting its needs on the level of nutrition and physical activity. If you haven't done that in your lifetime, consistently, you're not honoring the body that you have and what it could be. I feel like it's really important to understand these things about yourself on a cellular level. Once you understand that, and your body becomes something completely different to you, so does the entire world around you. You cannot look at the world the same after that. And you start to participate in it differently.
Yup, that's pretty empowering ...
What you do is you get rid of the confusion and the negativity that you're pointing in on yourself and now, instead of fighting your body, you're in harmony with your body and you have all this energy to put back out into the world. You can do amazing, beautiful things with your body and participate in being a part of the most powerful force on the planet, which is being a woman. I feel like that's really an exciting thing to think about.
I love participating in things that mean something. I make movies because I want people to feel and laugh and have fun and learn about themselves and learn about other people. All the stories I've been telling for 20 years, being a part of Tag Heuer, it's reminding me constantly that I get to go do something else that's amazing ... that's something that is important, to make those things a reality for ourselves. And you can't physically do that until you educate yourself and you hold the knowledge that you need to know about your body and also what the world is really about.
Speaking of the body, how do you dress, for you? What are your fashion standards?
For me, it's all about appropriateness. It's about dressing appropriate for what I'm doing and where I'm going and what I want to represent myself as at any given particular moment. It's about being authentic to myself and appropriate for what I think that moment needs.
Like I chose this outfit (see photo below) this evening because I feel comfortable in it as far as, it's a dress, but it's got warmth to it ... because it's actually a jacket. [laughs] It's freezing! Also I feel like it's classy and timeless. I feel like it's chic and elegant, but it's also a little edgy.
What do you feel about this new "completely sheer dress" trend? Gwyneth Paltrow rocked one recently ...
I don't really follow trends so much, you know what I mean? What I love about Gwyneth is that she can wear an-y-thing. Like literally wear anything, any trend, and look amazing in it. I can't really pull that off because I feel like I have too much of my own thing that I can't just wear anything. But I'm always in admiration of her, like, "Gosh, she can really pull that off! That's amazing, nobody else would be able to do that." So, I love that she can do that! [laughs]
Do you have a favorite body part of your own?
No, you know, the way I feel about that is it's like saying, "Do you have a favorite child?" If I say I like one part more than the other, than it's sort of like saying the other one is not good enough and I don't play that! [laughs] I love them all for what they do for me and what they're capable of.
Why did you want to partner up with Tag Heuer?
This partnership started about two years ago and I don't normally sort of endorse brands, but I feel like with Tag, it's not really an endorsement, it's really a partnership. It's more of a statement; This is a brand that I really believe in, it's quality, what it stands for, what it's been doing for the last 150 years ... Also, the partnership we have with UN Women, I thought, was very much in the nature of Tag, who give back to and empower people. Giving to the UN to help empower women all over the world, I thought that was a worthy cause to also partner with.
Cameron Diaz can be seen next in "The Other Woman," which hits theaters in April. She also just wrapped production on "Annie," in which she plays Miss Hannigan opposite Jamie Foxx and Quvenzhané Wallis.