Cameron Diaz explains why she finally got back in action after 10-year break

Cameron Diaz is back in action both literally and cinematically, with her 10-year hiatus from the screen ending with next year’s aptly titled Back in Action. Pairing once again with her Any Given Sunday and Annie co-star Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz says it was due time that she returned.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron Diaz explained of both her decade-long break and her insistence on returning, “It was just the right time for my family. After Covid, we were in the house for a long time, which was amazing and the problem was we would probably stay there, we would still be there right now. People would be like, ‘It’s over’ and I’d be like, ‘No it’s not, it’s not over for me.’” She added, “So I had to push myself; my husband and I — my husband, who is the best — he was like, ‘You’ve been supporting us and building the family’ and supporting him in his businesses, he’s like, ‘It’s time for us to support you and let Mommy ascend and do her thing.’ He’s like, ‘Let me see you do it girl.’ I was like, ‘Alright, here we go.’” Diaz also credited Foxx, saying there wasn’t a chance that she could ever turn him down.

And it’s also through Jamie Foxx that Back in Action has gotten some other publicity as well, as he suffered a “medical complication” during the production that he has thankfully bounced back from.

A staple of ‘90s rom-coms like My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary, Cameron Diaz mostly stuck within the genre for the duration of her career, although she did make time for an action franchise in Charlie’s Angels, working with legendary directors like Martin Scorsese on Gangs of New York and voicing Princess Fiona in the long-running Shrek series, which she will return for for the fifth outing.

As for why Cameron Diaz made the decision to dip from the acting scene, she said it “was something I just had to do. It felt like the right thing for me to do to reclaim my own life and I just really didn’t care about anything else. Nobody’s opinion, nobody’s success, no one’s offer, no one’s anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and building the life that I really wanted to have.”

Back in Action hits Netflix on January 17th.

Are you ready for Cameron Diaz’s return to movies? What stands as your favorite performance of hers?