NICK CASSAVETES - DIRECTOR IMPRESSED WITH DIAZ AS A DESPERATE MUM

DIRECTOR IMPRESSED WITH DIAZ AS A DESPERATE MUM

Moviemaker NICK CASSAVETES has heaped praise on CAMERON DIAZ for her portrayal as a young mum with a sick daughter - because the actress brought back memories of his own health crisis as a young father.
Cassavetes knew casting Diaz as a mum in hard-hitting drama My Sister's Keeper would be criticised, but he urges those who feel she isn't up for such a tough role to check out the upcoming movie - and weep.
He tells WENN, "Yes, she's never played a mother and she's playing a mother of three in this movie but that didn't scare me. I knew she was up for it. I'm more proud of her performance in the film than I am proud of things in my life."
Recalling his own daughter's battle with heart problems, the director adds, "When I was a young man my second daughter was diagnosed with congenital heart disease when she was a week old. When I was young the world was wide open before me and I was a happy guy. I didn't know anything about life and this illness from my daughter, Sasha, was temperance on my soul.
"It was a learning experience. It was something I had to go through and she had to go through and we had to go through together, with her mother and the entire family. Cameron felt like who I was at that time."