Actors have always retired and unretired. Daniel Day-Lewis and Audrey Hepburn come to mind when you think of actors who hung it all up, only to return a few years later. But no one expected Cameron Diaz to initially retire, let alone return nearly a decade later.
After eight years away from the camera, Diaz is set to return in the upcoming Netflix film Back In Action. She’ll co-star with Jamie Foxx in the movie which sees Seth Gordon helming from a script by Brendan O’Brien.
This film marks her first role since 2014’s Annie, which also starred Foxx. She took a break from the spotlight, which she initially claimed came from “became tired of traveling for filming.” The gap soon turned into an eight-year hiatus, which she initially said was her retirement from filmmaking.
In early 2022, Diaz made a big splash as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, which marked her first significant appearance in eight years. Soon after, it was confirmed she would star in Back In Action. During a recent interview on The Tonight Show, Diaz spoke about what attracted her to this project and what it felt like jumping back into the swing of things.
“I was like, so hey, guys, what’s the title of this? And they were like Back in Action. I was like, oh! I can really feel very connected to this character already…It’s a little bit of muscle memory; you know what I mean? I did that for so long; it’s kind of like the process – I just fell back into it. But it feels a little bit different,” says Diaz.
She adds that her co-star Jamie Foxx also played a big part in her return. The two first co-starred in 1999’s Any Given Sunday, then re-teamed for her last film before retirement was 2014’s Annie.
“The last movie I made was Annie with Jamie, and so the first movie back is this film with Jamie,” adds Diaz. She continues, “He’s so great, he’s so easy, he’s so professional, he’s so talented. And just being able to work with him, it’ll be so much fun.”
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