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"I have to admit it's really cute when I meet these young guys who are bright red and breathing like they've just run up the stairs when they've actually been sitting outside a door for an hour just to get an autograph or photo,'' says Diaz, who first set hearts pumping overtime as the seductress in The Mask.
"It's sweet and flattering but it doesn't actually play into my life. I just consider it part of the job."
It's not just legions of young male fans who think there's something special about Diaz. Entertainment Weekly voted her the "It Girl'' of 1998.
"I think it was really great of them to include me in their list this year, but I take the compliment with a grain of salt.
"It all has to do with popularity at a given time. Ever since The Mask, I've considered myself lucky to be at the right place at the right time. It's all about serendipity.
"They had an empty magazine cover to fill and I had a movie to sell. We're just helping each other. That's what the entertainment business is all about."
The movie in question is the slapstick romantic comedy There's Something About Mary, which opens Wednesday. It's the third film from brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who created the less-than-subtle comedies Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin.
Diaz plays Mary, a woman who is oblivious to the fact that four men are turning their lives inside out just to win her affection.
"I'm essentially the straight man in this movie. It's the guys who get to do all the wild and bizarre stuff.
"When I read the script, I definitely had serious qualms about certain scenes, but the Farrellys kept assuring me they'd play funny on screen.
"They kept telling me it was meant to be a cross between When Harry Met Sally and Blazing Saddles. I had to put my faith in that promise, and from the reactions of the test audiences they were right. I just didn't want Mary or myself to become an object of ridicule."
Diaz drew the line only once. She objected to a nude scene.
"I thought it was sleazy and exploitative given that this was just a slapstick comedy. I said no and there was no discussion, which I really respected."
One of Mary's suitors in There's Something About Mary is played by Diaz's real-life squeeze, Matt Dillon.
"At my first meeting with the Farrellys they said they wanted Matt to play the sleazy insurance investigator.
"They actually had no idea that Matt and I are a couple. They never read gossip magazines or the trade papers. That's how out of the (industry) loop these guys are."
Diaz had no objections to working with Dillon, but she did question the casting.
"I told them I thought Matt was too good looking to play such a loser. They told me that wouldn't be a problem considering what they had in store for that character.
"Matt was such a great sport to let them make him look so silly."
This is Diaz and Dillon's first joint venture since they began dating almost three years ago.
"It was a great experience. The fact we're still together and happier than ever says it all. I have to admit we were surprised ourselves that spending that much time together every day was so rewarding. People told us that much togetherness could get ugly. It didn't."
Though There's Something About Mary is extremely low-brow humor, Diaz is positive her parents are not going to be offended.
"I asked my mother to read the script before I signed any contracts and she just howled. She was the one who said I absolutely had to do it."
Diaz says that she was raised on laughter.
"My earliest memories are of laughter. I can shut my eyes and hear my father's laugh. My mother's is even more contagious.
"As a child, I did everything I could to make her laugh because it would make me laugh, too."
Diaz's father has a brief cameo in There's Something About Mary as a prisoner in a county jail.
"Everyone in the movie is a friend of the Farrellys. We called all the extras FOBs and FOPs. Friends of Bobby's and friends of Peter's. They asked my mom to do a cameo but she chickened out."
Diaz and Dillon had so much fun making There's Something About Mary that they are already looking for another film to do together.
"The next one will be a little less broad. I can promise you that."
Diaz has already signed to star in the comedy Being John Malkovich in which she'll play John Cusack's wife.
She and Dillon share his apartment in New York and the house she bought this year in Los Angeles.
"I've been living out of a suitcase for too many years. I wanted my own home desperately and now I have two."