"All thanks to Jamie"— Cameron Diaz claims the chance to work with Jamie Foxx influenced her to return to acting
Cameron Diaz is back to acting after around a decade and she explained the reason that inspired her return to Hollywood. Fans last saw her in 2014 films Anni, The Other Woman, and S*x Tape, but Diaz has not worked in a movie ever since. She recently made her comeback with Back in Action, a spy action comedy with Jamie Foxx, which was released on Netflix on January 17, 2025.
During her Friday, January 17, appearance on The Graham Norton Show with Foxx, Diaz opened up about what, or who, prompted her acting comeback. She said:
"I am back all thanks to Jamie."
She added that the script for Back in Action was ultimately the game-changer that made her think that it was time to return to acting, adding:
"I had 10 years of not paying attention to anything; not accepting any advances, and then I got this script and I thought that maybe it was time."
Cameron Diaz also said that her "most talented" co-star in Back In Action was also a driving factor for her decision to come out of acting retirement after a decade. She added:
"If I was going to leave my family for 10 hours a day I wanted to do it with the most talented man in the entertainment business."
In the aptly-named movie for Cameron Diaz' return to acting, Back in Action, she plays Emily, who, like Jamie Foxx's Matt, was a former CIA spy. However, after their secret identities were exposed, they were forced to return to their espionage lifestyle and run again with their family on a new mission.
The Seth Gordon-directed film, which he co-wrote with Brendan O'Brien, also stars McKenna Roberts, Andrew Scott, Kyle Chandler, Glenn Close, and more.
Cameron Diaz admits that she would have been a "fool" not to grab the chance to make Back in Action
During the January 17 episode of The Graham Norton Show, Cameron Diaz shared that she felt lucky to be able to return to acting even after leaving the spotlight a decade ago. She said that it was a privilege to make movies and that they were lucky to be able to do what they do, adding:
"That the door was even open for me after a decade was amazing."
Back in 2014, Cameron Diaz left the acting scene, and throughout her 10-year hiatus, she married Benji Madden in 2015 and welcomed their daughter, Raddix, in 2019 and their son, Cardinal, in 2024. She said in a January 16 video uploaded onto the Still Watching Netflix channel on YouTube that she spent her hiatus to focus on her family and "being a mom."
However, on The Graham Norton Show, the actress admitted that she would have been a "fool" to pass up on the chance to work on Back in Action, saying:
"I love those 10 years for me and my family, but I thought, 'If I let this go away, if I don't engage again, and if I don't give it chance, I am a fool."
While Diaz didn't say that she will be returning to acting for good, she did tease that Netflix's Back in Action "might be the beginning of something."
Back in Action is now available to stream on Netflix.
