Exclusive the BIG razz interview A boyband, solo hits, awards, Hollywood ... now Justin Timberlake is back for more

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has finally revealed he HAS done a duet with Cameron Diaz ... the trouble is, it didn’t go so well.

So don’t expect a Justin and Cameron single any time soon.

The 25 year old laughed: "We sang a couple of duets in the car once. They didn’t go so well. Nevertheless it was fun."

Justin is back, almost. This summer - sometime around August, September or October, according to his record label - he’ll release his second album, the follow-up to the seven million-selling, UK number one Justified.

The ex-boyband star from *NSYNC released Justified in 2002 and, although you could complain of his Stone Roses-style work rate, Justin has been far from idle.

The singer has turned movie actor and, while he hasn’t enjoyed a huge blockbusting role, he does have a handful of roles under his belt.

Edison and Alpha Dog are still awaiting a UK release, while comedy Southland Tales is out in the UK on September 15.

He’s also just finished Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson and will join girlfriend Cameron as the voice of a young King Arthur in Shrek the Third, which is out in June next year.

His singing was stopped for a few months in 2004 while recording Signs with Snoop Dogg (it went to No.2 last year) when he discovered nodules on his throat. They were operated on this time last year. He was advised not to sing or speak loudly for at least a few months.

It is hard to believe Justin Timberlake is only 25 years old - and that’s nothing to do with the fact he shares his bed with 33-year-old Hollywood cutie Cameron Diaz every night.

Being the most famous toyboy on the planet doesn’t even make it on to Justin’s glittering CV. He only turned 25 in January, yet he seems to have been around for as long as anyone can recall.

First, as the lead vocalist in popular boy band *NSYNC, which he joined when he was just 14, and lately as a successful solo artist with tunes such as Like I Love you, Cry Me A River and Rock Your Body.

He’s also scooped three awards and was star of the show at the MTV Europe Awards in Edinburgh in 2003.

In between he has been writing, performing and touring. He’s even managed to find time to launch a clothing line and open restaurants.

So just what is Justin Timberlake’s recipe for success?

The Tennessee native laughed: "You make me sound old. I don’t know. If you make a choice for the right reason, if you do something you really want to do, something you admire, then it feels genuine and right."

Which brings us on to his acting. He started as a Mouseketeer in Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club and could have made it has a huge teen acting star while *NSYNC were the biggest boyband on the planet.

Justin shrugged: "You know, it’s the same when I came out with my solo record. I wanted that to be something no one expected because it’s easy to do what everybody expects from you.

"With film it’s the same. I’d rather do something that challenges me. I have been sent an enormous amount of scripts, some of them were teen movies, some of them were actually funny.

"But I didn’t want people to think I would capitalise on my music, you know. And it’s not what I wanted to be known for.

"I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. Back then I guess it wasn’t the right time or something."

Of course, from Madonna and Cher to Frank Sinatra or River City’s Lorraine McIntosh, there have been singers who have tried with varying degrees of success to go from singing to acting.

And like many singers-turned-actors Justin claims he’s wanted to act for years.

He said: "I started off as a kid in sketch comedy on a show on the Disney Channel. I always sang in church, but that was my first real professional work.

"I was 11 so that was my first experience and I remember at that time we would study acting and we would do all different types of work with drama and comedy and we would watch movies and replay scenes. We’d also rehearse scenes from theatre.

"I was so young but I remember being old enough to know I should definitely be soaking up everything that was happening. I’m glad I paid attention.

"The timing wasn’t right when I was younger and my music was keeping me busy and on the move. I knew when I decided to pursue it I wanted to it give it everything."

While we have yet to see if Justin can act, we all know he can sing and fans are growing impatient for new solo material, due in late summer.

The nodules, acting work and also producing have all conspired to keep the new album back but Justin reveals he has worked with Timbaland, Will.i.am (from The Black Eyed Peas) and Rick Rubin, and - while there’s no duet with Cameron Diaz - the album will feature vocals by Snoop Dogg and Nelly Furtado.

He said: "Interestingly enough I have been working with some different artists lately. Do you remember The Gap Band?

"Charlie Wilson did a record and asked me to produce a song for him. That was really cool. He is one of my all-time idols in music.

"I was also doing some work with Macy Gray, just all kind of different things. I’ve been more in the background lately, producing and not performing myself. But I’m working on some new stuff for myself as well.

"I’m going to do some music very, very soon because I’m getting itchy to be back on tour and just travel on the bus, and play different venues and see different people every day. I do miss that and so it’ll be an interesting balance.

"I’ll have to find a way to make it happen, to juggle both careers."

Justin knows the knives may be out for him as he moves from singing to acting, perhaps thinking of ex-girlfriend Britney Spears’ movie bomb Crossroads or Mariah Carey’s Glitter.

In America his acting debut in Edison, alongside Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey, as a reporter exposing police corruption was panned by critics as "a star-studded dud of a B-picture" by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety compared him to "a reporter from Seventeen magazine". The film was dismissed as a "parade of clich?s".

But Justin is resilient and said: "I don’t care. It’s not going to change my process of moving forward. I don’t waste time thinking about that, you know.

"I’m doing what I want to do, no matter what other people may think. If you enjoy it and you’re inspired and driven, then that’s all that matters."

He admits working on film doesn’t have the buzz off the "instant gratification" of being on stage. And he laughed: "Being on film, you finish it and then it’s out of your hands.

"I always say as soon as the movie wraps I’m like: ’Oh, wait, I know how to play this character now’.

"So, I think with film you could probably torture yourself a lot more. On stage everything’s happening on the spur of the moment."

Justin had a few minor acting roles, including a bit part in Model Behavior, and a cameo in On the Line in 2001 with ex-band buddies Lance Bass and Joey Fatone.

But his first day of shooting in his debut proper on Edison was with Oscar-winning actors Freeman and Spacey.

He said: The first couple of takes I was kind of nervous but Morgan, I have to say, is such a caretaker.

"He calms every situation down.

"Just the whole vibe of our experience together was about having fun.

"I don’t know about the rest of the actors and what they got up to because there was a lot that had to be done for this film, ’ but between takes we had so much fun together - joking and singing different songs just to pass the time."

Justin is certainly trying out different roles. In Alpha Dog, due out in the UK in the autumn, he plays a tattooed drug dealer and for Shrek the Third he’ll play Artie, the young King Arthur, opposite real life girlfriend Cameron’s Princess Fiona.

But don’t think they’ll be any hanky panky between the pair - even in celluloid.

Justin laughed: "That would be disgusting. In the movie they are actually cousins."

A successful boyband member who turned Grammy and Brit award-winning solo star and is now an acting wannabe with a clothes line - at 25 what’s been Justin’s greatest achievement?

He smiled: "Well, you know, a lot of people come up to me and tell me that my music had made an impact on their life.

"To me that is more important than any award. Hearing people say they like your stuff is the best satisfaction.

"Music sometimes has an impact - you remember where you were when you heard certain songs."

By the sounds of it, it seems that Justin is really gearing himself up for his big singing comeback.

"I’m going some music very, very soon because I’m getting itchy to be back on tour and just travel on the bus, and play and see different venues and see different people every day."