By ANGELA DAWSON
Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Having starred in the successful revenge comedy “The Other Woman” earlier this year, big screen comedy queen Cameron Diaz teams up with Jason Segel for more laughs in “Sex Tape.”

In this Jake Kasdan-directed comedy, Diaz plays a blogger named Annie, who has been married to Segel’s Jay for a decade. They are in love, have two beautiful children and live in a nice house in the suburbs. The only thing is their love life has waned in the long years of monotonous, monogamous matrimony. So the couple decides to spice things up by recording their lovemaking on video, for their own enjoyment later. Unfortunately, the next morning Annie and Jay discover the video is missing, and they frantically try to track it down before the three-hour epic goes viral, potentially ruining their careers, their reputations and egos.

Diaz, 41, recently spoke about making the comedy, and working with Segel again after they co-starred in Kasdan’s 2011 comedy “Bad Teacher.”

Q: Were there acting methods you used in this film that you hadn’t used before?

Diaz: We’re ultimately comedic actors. We’re telling a story, hopefully! (She laughs.) We’re relaying two people’s experiences. The story here is this is a couple who is really making an effort to show one another their relationship counts, it matters, and they’re willing to do anything to bring back the spark that they have let go out from neglect, because of everyday life and the things that take precedent. It’s a moment where they decided that this is more important than anything. So, for us, when we’re telling that story, that’s from where we’re approaching it. It was predetermined that they fancied themselves sexual athletes.

Q: How challenging were the bedroom scenes?

Diaz: It was kind of awkward. (She chuckles.) And once they got into a nice rhythm, you see who they are. You see the things that they have fun doing together. So, when you approach it from that place, it’s not about Jason and myself. We don’t have to be embarrassed about these things because we’re just thinking, “How can we make it funny? How can we show the certain fun that these two people have with one another?”

Q: Do you think about how people who have been together a long time can maintain the sexual component of their relationship and keep it fresh?

Diaz: It just made me think of something. It’s so funny that we concentrate so much on these things, like a person. I think about what was I doing 10 years ago, consistently, for like a year, that now, 10 years later, I’ve completely dropped, like a hobby of some sort. I used to take pictures all the time. I really never was without a camera, and that was something I thought I’d always have, a camera. I still do, but I rarely take a picture with it. But life is like that. It’s kind of crazy that we have this expectation that we’re supposed to want to do anything for 20 years or 30 years. Even with just within ourselves, we change, we grow, we go in and out of these phases in our lives, and it’s kind of a crazy expectation to think that we’re supposed to keep that person that we were crazy about for two or three years, long enough for us to have a family with, and commit our lives to, that we’re supposed to keep that level of enthusiasm. I think we have to cut ourselves a little bit of a break on that.

Q: Would you agree that a long-term relationship requires a bit of discipline?

Diaz: I can live with that better if somebody gives me that information and lets me know that that’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what a marriage is. That’s not what people do entering into a marriage. I don’t think that’s their idea of what it is.

Q: You have an established routine to take care of your body. You eat certain things. You exercise. What is your routine in your emotional life?

Diaz: I think it’s like any discipline or routine. It changes. There are a lot of different elements and circumstances and you have to be able to go with the flow and always stay focused on what your intention is and why you do what you do. Why do I take care of my body? What’s the intention right at this moment? Is to keep strength in my body. Is to make sure I feel good on a daily basis. That I have enough energy to do the things I need to do. So if that’s my intention, it’s easy to go anywhere, and with that intention and make it work. I think it’s the same thing emotionally. If you’re working on something emotionally, and you’re thinking, “What am I doing right now? What’s my intention? What am I trying to achieve?” As long as you hold that intention, you can go anywhere and find the resources to do so. Communicating with your partner and to yourself.

Q: Do you think that sex tapes are becoming more prevalent among regular people and not just celebrities like Paris Hilton?

Diaz: If we’re looking at the ratio of famous people to those who are not, I think, percentage-wise, the number is very small compared to the actual number of people who can possibly have a sex tape. For the people who are famous for a sex tapes, I think that was a conscious decision and maybe possibly a strategy to become famous. And you know that’s their prerogative.

Q: Did you clean up some of the things you made up? We heard you were wearing a beard and a Viking hat. Is that right?

Diaz: Yep. And (Jason) were wearing an Egyptian loin cloth singing “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.” (She laughs.)

Q: Rob Lowe plays your boss in the movie. Who is responsible for his look?

Diaz: He showed up with that character.

Q: Video technology has other risks than simply embarrassing people. A lot of young people are afraid to go to school because of embarrassing pictures taken of them at a party. What are your thoughts on this?

Diaz: It’s all elective. You don’t have to take pictures and send them to the Cloud. We forget that just because the technology is there, we don’t have to use it. I think that people don’t even consider that. We go ahead and use it because it’s there and people might start considering or not whether that’s a safe place for their information to be stored.

Q: What is your advice to young girls who are afraid that their pictures are being abused when leaked on the Cloud?

Diaz: Don’t do it. I have nieces. I tell them all the time, “Honey, you send something out there into the world, guess what, even if you take it off of your Instagram account, somebody else has it. They might have taken a screen shot of it. Their friends might have seen it. You don’t know where. This is a very dangerous world we’re living in as far as technology and social media go. The big lie and misconception about social media is that it’s meant for you to be connected to millions of people who you don’t know. People are not your friends just because they liked your picture. Social media is set up so you can communicate with actual friends and with your family, and for some reason we’ve decided to use it to communicate to a bunch of strangers, who we don’t know. I think that’s really dangerous.