Los Angeles, Dec 19 (IANS): Actress Cameron Diaz says she wanted a couple of years to prepare for her singing role in "Annie".

The actress portrays the evil Miss Hannigan in the remake of the 1982 classic but despises being a "bad" singer, and would have loved to have a spend more time to perfect her vocals, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Speaking on "The Graham Norton Show", she said: "I love singing but I hate how bad a singer I am, but I try. I would have liked a couple of years to prepare for the role, which is what it required. But, I was surrounded by the best professionals and teachers and they rallied around me and gave me a voice that was usable."

Though it formed a big talking point, the singing wasn't the only thing that Diaz had to worry about on the set and revealed she lost a fortune whilst filming. Her children co-stars forced the actress to put $1 in a jar every time she cursed in front of them.

"They run a scam and get all the adults scared and they are like, 'You can't swear in front of me and if you do, you have to put money in the jar because I'm a kid,' and they walk away with hundreds of dollars," she said.

"You can't even whisper a swear word without them saying, 'You owe me a dollar.' They have a pile of cash when they leave and I am like, 'No, no, no, I don't play that'," she added.