(Cover) - EN Movies - Cameron Diaz has likened her Bad Teacher character to a dress which looks awful on a hanger, but great on.

The actress plays a foul-mouthed, lazy and selfish middle school teacher called Elizabeth Halsey in the comedy. When she read the script she couldn't relate to the role initially, but Cameron soon warmed to the character and began to understand how she ticks.

"30 pages in, I didn't want to know her and then by ten pages more I was starting to get her. By the end I loved her. My rule is I have to read it all the way through," Cameron told British newspaper The Independent. "It's kind of like the dress that looks terrible on a hanger, and then you try it on and it's the only dress that looks good after you've said, 'That will never look good'. It was a struggle at first, then I realised how brilliant she was. She wasn't asking for anybody's forgiveness, just being authentic to herself."

The Hollywood actress thinks her co-star Lucy Punch did an amazing job playing Elizabeth's nemesis, textbook teacher Amy Squirrel.

But Cameron insisted there was no competition on set to be the funniest.

"I really think Lucy does steal the film," she said. "Making movies is a collaboration, and it's such an important thing to create an environment where everybody can thrive, everybody can shine. I want everybody to be great and feel confident that they are doing the best work that they can do. I think camaraderie and teamwork is the only way to make movies, or anything in life." (C) Cover Media