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As the tough-gal owner of fictional football club the Miami Sharks in Stone's gridiron drama Any Given Sunday, Diaz often got up-close and personal with players. Especially in one locker-room scene where she had to keep a straight face while shaking hands with a nude jock -- who, despite being jockless, sports some phenomenal, er, equipment.
"All the women always ask about that scene," smirks Diaz. "For some reason the men never do."
Other gals might have cracked. But after starring in the crudely wild hit There's Something About Mary, the 27-year-old blond knows how to play her poker face -- and how to keep her mind on the game.
"That was one of those scenes where you just go in there and do your job -- keep your eyes up, keep your spirits up," she says, insisting she didn't even peek, and didn't see things in, um, proportion, until she saw the film.
"When I saw what was going on, I was like, 'Holy cow! What is that all about?' " she says, laughing at Stone's mischief. "I'm sure Oliver was trying to see how far he could take it. But I didn't have any problems. I can take it."
Indeed, the colliding macho worlds of Stone and football didn't faze her -- she grew up watching the game with her dad.
"He didn't have any sons; my sister and I kind of substituted for that," she says. "So the boy thing didn't bother me.
"Yes, the testosterone level on the set was very high. It was very thick. But I spent a lot of time up in the sky box while the boys were down on the field, so it didn't affect me."
Besides, she had to act plenty macho herself as the coldly ambitious Christina Pagniacci, who butts heads -- often and loudly -- with her old-school coach, played by the king of head-butters: Al Pacino.
"That was crazy," she confesses. "I felt like a little girl, like a 12-year-old with braces while I was doing it. It was exciting and it was terrifying."
But that's why she took the role.
"People ask me why I did the movie, and I say, 'There's Al Pacino and Oliver Stone -- and they say I can have a part in the movie if I want one.' You can't really say no.
"Besides, I was bottled up and so I was looking for a role that I could just explode on -- and you guys are all writing that down, aren't you?" she cracks, playing with reporters.
Diaz did put the lid on to sneak away at least once for a romantic weekend with boyfriend Jared Leto (My So-Called Life) in Toronto, where he was filming American Psycho. Call it one of the perqs of being Hollywood's new it girl -- along with a reported $12 million payday for her next role opposite Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in the Charlie's Angels film, shooting soon in L.A.
"So far, so good," agrees Diaz.
But spending two months in Miami on call just in case the unpredictable director needed her was frustrating.
"You never knew when you were going to be called in. You'd work four days and then have a week off and then work two days and have two weeks off."
Still, better to be on the bench than running interference in the locker room.