Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars in the latest version of the musical Annie, with Cameron Diaz playing Annie’s irascible caretaker Miss Hannigan and Jamie Foxx starring as mayoral candidate Will Stacks.
In director John Huston’s version of Annie, Miss Hannigan’s (Carol Burnett) venom was borne out of being a spinster. Diaz sees her Hannigan as a woman whose major flaw lies in her insecurity. It’s a parallel the actress sees in our culture’s fixation with social media:
“Hannigan looks to be validated not by the love of one man, but of millions of people and being famous. And I think that’s a syndrome – an epidemic in our culture and society – that we feel that we’re not validated if we’re not seen by millions of people. We balance our self worth on whether or not we are accepted by people through social media – how many likes you get, how many people follow you, if you don’t have that – then you’re really not worth anything.”
Cameron Diaz’s own relationship with social media is lukewarm at best:
“I don’t like social media – it’s not my instinct. I tried it and it’s just not my instinct to tell people what I’m doing and it’s not my instinct to look and see what other people are doing. I’m a very present, immediate person. I like to be where I’m at with the people that I’m with.”
To hear the audio version of Diaz’s complete answer, click on the media bar below.
Annie, co-starring Rose Byrne, opens Friday, December 19, 2014.