When Diablo Cody was growing up, she wanted to be a butcher. But she settled for writing an Oscar-winning screenplay instead.
Cody, the writer of "Juno" and a former stripper, shared this and other life insights at her first college appearance at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night.
About 800 people attended the event to watch Cody sit in the hot seat with Mike Foley, UF journalism master lecturer, peppering her with questions - a set-up similar to Bravo's "Inside the Actors Studio."
The event was sponsored by Accent, Student Government speaker's bureau. Accent paid Cody $40,000 for her appearance.
Foley started off the night with the "easy questions," and the audience learned that Cody grew up crawling around the German restaurant her parents owned in Hinsdale, Ill.
Her given name is Brooke. But throughout her life she adopted a series of other monikers, including Bon Bon, Roxanne and her current pen name, Diablo.
"Honestly, if I had any idea that the name Diablo would one day be engraved on an Oscar, I would never have chosen it," she said.
Before she wrote "Juno," Cody worked for a year as a stripper.
"You really have to be kind of a warm, nurturing soul to succeed as a stripper," she said, comparing the role to that of a "surrogate mommy."
She said she may not have been the best stripper in that respect, especially because she's been quoted as calling herself "the princess of snark."
But now she said she's traded in her snide attitude and has something nice to say about everybody.
For the ultimate test, Foley asked, "Paris Hilton?"
"Paris Hilton loves animals," Cody replied unflinchingly, and the audience responded with one of many rounds of laughs of the evening.
Cody spoke about two of her upcoming projects: a horror movie called "Jennifer's Body" about a "hot girl who is a cannibal," and a TV show starring Toni Collette as a mother with multiple personalities.
The show, called "The United States of Tara," is scheduled to air on Showtime.
She closed the night by advising aspiring writers to take advantage of the "magical" world where anyone who wants to be a writer can do it.
"The fact of the matter is, if you want people to read your work, you could do it tonight," she said.
She urged them to put their work on the Internet, but she cautioned against listening to criticism because not all readers - including mothers - will understand.
"My mom called me, and she said, 'Well, that Jennifer is not very nice,'" Cody said, referring to her new screenplay, "Jennifer's Body."
"And I was like, 'She's a f-ing cannibal.'"
Lauren Yuill, a UF staff member from the College of Dentistry who attended the event, said she liked how Cody was "unbelievably real and raw."
"There should be more people like that out there," Yuill said. "I think there's no other word than amazing."
