Cameron Diaz is back on screens in new action thriller Back In Action, but why did she retire from acting in the first place? Read on for the full story.
The new film sees her starring opposite Jamie Foxx, with the two playing a pair of former CIA spies who are brought back into service when their identities are exposed.
The film, directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, Baywatch) and based on a screenplay by Gordon and Brendan O’Brien, is streaming on Netflix as of January 17. See the trailer below.
Glenn Close plays Diaz’s character’s mother, while Kyle Chandler, Andrew Scott and Jamie Demetriou also star.
Until Back In Action, Diaz’s last film was the 2014 version of Annie, in which she played Miss Hannigan. She did not make any formal announcement at the time, but it would be an 11 year wait until she appeared again on the big screen.
Before that, she had been known as one of Hollywood’s most bankable A-list stars, from her breakthrough in 1994’s The Mask to the box office successes of There’s Something About Mary (1998), Charlie’s Angels (2000) and its sequel and the Shrek franchise. Making her name in romantic comedies such as My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Holiday, she also had dramatic turns in critically acclaimed films such as Gangs Of New York and Vanilla Sky.
Several years after choosing to withdraw from the public eye, Diaz gave an interview in 2018 confirming her retirement and explaining that she wanted to focus on her family. In 2015, she married Good Charlotte guitarist Beni Madden and they have since had two children via surrogate.
Last year, she explained that she felt retirement was “something I had to do to reclaim my own life”.
In a recent interview, she has said that while she may appear in moves semi-regularly again, she will be more selective about her future roles. “I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” she told Empire Magazine. “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. I’m not defining anything. I’m just open to whatever makes sense for me and my family at any given moment”.
One genre she will definitely say no to will be romantic comedies, later saying in the interview: “No more rom-coms, only mom-coms”.
