Some teachers just don’t give an F. For example, there’s Elizabeth. She’s foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can’t wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. When she’s dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy. When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher, the consequences of her wild and outrageous schemes give her students, her coworkers, and even herself an education like no other.

Movie Quotes

Elizabeth: I’m going to suck your dick like I’m mad at it.

Elizabeth: I tell you what I know. A kid who wears the same gymnastics sweatshirt three days a week isn’t getting laid until he’s 29. that’s what I know.
Russell: That was a nice thing you did for him.
Elizabeth: He was going through a difficult time.
Russell: I am going through a difficult time. May I have your panties?
Elizabeth: I’m not wearing any.

Elizabeth: Sign my yearbook.
Russell: Hold my ball sack.

Production Notes

“Elizabeth isn’t a teacher because it’s noble – it’s just a job, a necessity: she has to pay the rent,” says Cameron Diaz, who plays a teacher redefining education in Bad Teacher. “In fact, her whole motivation is to find a way that she never has to teach again.”

When the idea for the movie came to the screenwriting team of Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg, they knew they‟d hit on something incredibly rare and special. “It seemed like there weren’t a lot of comedy roles for women,” says Eisenberg. “We would see so many funny women on „Saturday Night Live‟ and on talk shows, and they‟d be hysterical and charming, and then we‟d go to the movies and they‟d be props to get two guys to become friends or whatever. We really wanted to write a project for a comedienne.”

The opportunity to play a character that is so over-the-top outrageous but at the same time fully drawn is what appealed to Diaz. Diaz enjoys pushing the envelope – as evidenced in the worldwide hit There’s Something About Mary – but she says that this kind of role doesn’t come along all that often. “You just don’t come across parts like this. It just doesn’t happen. And particularly for women. The script is just so subversive and brilliant and so funny. By the time I finished reading it for the first time, there was no question – I had to play her.” And how misguided is Elizabeth? “She’s driven to get money so that she can get a new pair of boobs,” Diaz explains. “She’s looking for a guy who is rich enough to take her away so she never has to work again, and she’s convinced that if she gets those D-cups they‟ll be her ticket out.”

“I thought it was one of the funniest scripts I had ever read,” says director Jake Kasdan. “Lee and Gene have a completely original, hilarious voice – I think that they‟ve written one of the great female comedy parts, and we found the perfect person to play her.”

Kasdan says it is Diaz’s willingness to completely give herself over to the role that sets her apart. “Cameron has got this great thing: she is completely fearless,” says Kasdan. “She enjoys being dirty and edgy and she’s completely open-minded about what might work. She was the perfect person to be at the center of this and it was a real gift for the writers and me to be working with her.” Describing Diaz’s character, Kasdan says, “Elizabeth isn’t a bad person – she just has terrible, terrible values.”

“She isn’t aggressively mean – she just thinks she’s above it all,” Diaz explains. “She has no passion for teaching, no desire for the kids to learn anything. Even when she finds out she can get a big payday if the kids do well on the state test, it doesn’t make her want to be a better teacher; she just wants the scores. I love that she never changes.” Indeed, for Elizabeth, it’s all about Elizabeth. Everything she does is about moving toward her goal of no longer having to be a teacher – even if it means stealing money from the seventh grade car wash. “Elizabeth isn’t a hard worker, but she knows how to work it and she’s a piece of work,” says Diaz. “She shows up for the car wash in a pair of short shorts and heels and a shirt tied up, washing cars for the parents. It all seems pretty simple to her – she worms her way into being in charge of the car wash and then takes her cut of the earnings.”

Kasdan says, “Cameron is probably the only actress in the world who can pull that off, because she is the only person I can think of who can be that funny while looking that hot. She’s just completely hilarious in that scene.”

Director Jake Kasdan notes that the edgy material lent itself to a collaborative environment on the set. “It’s very unusual to find an edgy, R-rated comedy centered around a woman,” he says. “The R rating gives you enormous freedom to be as completely insane as you want to be in any moment – and we were with a group of people who embraced that completely,” says the director. “Gene and I like the idea of adults being mean to kids as a warped source of comedy,” laughs Eisenberg.

“Before we started filming, we made sure that all the kids – and all the parents – knew what the project was going to be like,” says Cameron Diaz. “I said, „There’s going to be swearing here and completely irreverent and inappropriate behavior. If you have any issue with that, we respect that, but this isn’t the place for you.‟ And then we got started…”

When it came to the costumes, Cameron Diaz had a few strong opinions about how Elizabeth should dress, which resulted in fruitful conversations with the director and costume designer. “Cameron has a way of making magic with anything that she puts on,” says the film’s costume designer, Debra McGuire. “She has a great sense of style and of her body. At the first fitting – which lasted six hours, and Jake was there – she would just take something and make it extraordinary.”

“I wanted her to be the sort of girl who cares about the way she looks more than anything. She used to have a rich boyfriend, and even now, she spends her money on all the wrong things. You don’t show up for school as a teacher wearing Christian Louboutin heels!” Diaz explains. “But for Elizabeth, it’s all about the heels. She wants to be seen – she believes she’s above her job and everyone there, and with the heels, she’s literally above everyone else.”

Awards and Nominations

Won – Teen Choice Award – Choice Movie Actress Comedy
Nominated – ALMA Award – Favorite Movie Actress Comedy
Nominated – People’s Choice Award – Favorite Movie Actress Comedy