Cameron Diaz was tricked into her live karaoke scene in My Best Friend's Wedding

Turns out that Julianne wasn't the only devious one

my best friend's wedding karaoke scene
(Image credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Turns out that Julianne wasn't the only devious one

It’s officially been two decades since My Best Friend’s Wedding came out and the trivia's been making the rounds too, including the fact that Julia Roberts personally chose Dermot Mulroney, test audiences originally wanted Julianne dead and My Best Friend's Wedding almost had an alternative ending. One surprising thing we didn’t realise was that Cameron Diaz’s iconic karaoke scene was actually the cunning work of director (and prankster) P.J. Hogan.

Everyone remembers the painful yet charming scene, where Julia Roberts’ character puts Cameron Diaz on the spot at a karaoke bar and she belts into a terrible rendition of I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.

However it turns out that according to the film’s music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg, Cameron actually didn’t think she’d be doing any singing at first.

‘Cameron had been practicing [her lip-syncing],’ she revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

P.J. changed his mind at the last minute though and threw her into the deep end - as Julianne did. Bonnie said, 'P.J. decided it would be better to see if she could sing it live, then she’d be embarrassed, like her character.’

my best friend's wedding karaoke scene

Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
(Image credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Yikes. Well, it seems like Cameron was only pretending to be disastrously awful as she’s gone on to star in full on musicals like Annie, where she played the villainous Miss Colleen Hannigan. She did have to take a few singing lessons to get her up to scratch though, which sounds like it was a good idea.

‘I sang in My Best Friend’s Wedding. That was more true to my voice. But that’s my karaoke voice, you see. I had to actually have a voice for this song, for this film. I did a lot of training - as much as I could!’ Cameron revealed on The Ellen Show.

It’s okay girl, not all of us were born to be singers. Some of us were born to raise a glass at a karaoke bar and belt out Seal’s Kiss From a Rose sloppily and off key. Not that we’re speaking from our own experience or anything.

Megan C. Hills

Megan is a freelance journalist who covers entertainment and all things lifestyle, with a particular passion for fashion, beauty, travel and Keanu Reeves stories. She has previously worked on staff for titles including Marie Claire UK, CNN Style and The Evening Standard and has written for titles such as Bustle UK, Wallpaper*, Forbes and Hong Kong Tatler. She splits her time between London and her hometown Hong Kong, where she currently lives with the love of her life - an elderly dog named Poppy - and her husband.