One of the highest grossing stars of the 90s, actress Cameron Diaz, returns to screens this week for her first film in more than 10 years, but the icon revealed she had terms for stepping out of retirement.
Fittingly titled Back in Action, the actress' new Netflix action-comedy filmstars her and Jamie Foxx as ex-CIA spies Emily and Matt, who are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.
In 2013,she was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter as being the highest paid actress over 40, first gaining major acclaim for her role in the comedy There’s Something About Mary in 1998.
Drew Barrymore, Bill Murray, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz in Charlie's Angels. Photo / Columbia Pictures, File
In a new behind-the-scenes Netflix clip promoting her new film, Diaz spoke openly about her return to acting.
Comfortable with being away from the limelight, the actress revealed that over the last decade she had said “no to everything” and put “most of my focus” on her wine company, Avaline, and her children.
“I was perfectly happy just living my life, doing other things,” The Mask star said.
“Day in and day out, not movies. And then I get a phone call from Jamie Foxx, and how do you say no to Jamie Foxx when he says, ‘Hey, I’ve got this big action comedy that we can just have so much fun on'.”
Diaz previously noted in a December interview with Empire that her return to the screen came with terms.
“I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” she said when asked if she would continue to make movies after Back in Action.
“If I say it then it becomes this thing. I reserve the right to say no to doing a movie ever again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I decide to.”
Whispers of Diaz’s return to the screen happened around 2022, and a source told People that she felt “a bit rusty and nervous”, but “mostly excited”, about her comeback.
It was also revealed that her husband, Good Charlotte singer Benji Madden, “encouraged her to unretire”.
But it remains to be seen as to whether Diaz will make a fully-fledged comeback, with the actress speaking in 2021 about the benefits being away from the screen had when raising her kids.
“But I couldn’t imagine like being a mum now where I’m at as a mother with my child at her first year to have to be on a movie set that takes 14 hours, 16 hours of my day away from my child. I just couldn’t,” Newsbreak reported Diaz saying in 2021.
“I personally feel like that wasn’t the mum that, I wouldn’t have been the mum that I am now had I chosen to do that at any other time in my life.”
Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden have two children together.
Diaz also found fame in the animated movie circuit, well-known for her voicing of Shrek character Princess Fiona.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Diaz will reprise her role for the highly anticipated Shrek 5, meaning the actress may not be fully done with showbusiness just yet.
