Don’t expect to see Cameron Diaz make an acting comeback anytime soon.
In a new interview with Yahoo Finance Presents, the 48-year-old actress admits her priorities have shifted since starting a family with husband Benji Madden. The two welcomed their first child together, baby girl Raddix, in December 2019.
Diaz recalls to the outlet how a producer friend of hers (who also worked on major movies) went through a similar shift. “Her family started to evolve and I saw her go like, ‘Oh, wait, I only have 100%,'” says Diaz, whose last big screen appearance was in 2014’s Annie remake. “You only have 100%, we don’t have two 100%, we have 100%. Right? So you’ve got to break up that 100%…how much are you going to give to your family? How much are you going to give to your career?”
“It’s just a different time in my life now,” she continues. “Now I’m here and this is the most fulfilling thing that I’ve ever done in my life. [To] have a family and be married and have our little nucleus of a family. It’s just completely the best thing. So I can’t give…I don’t have what it takes to give making a movie what it needs to be made. All of my energy is here.”
Rumors that Diaz was done making movies first started swirling in 2018 after fellow actress Selma Blair accidentally touched on the topic in an interview with Metro UK. “BREAKING NEWS. Guys please, I was making a joke in an interview,” she tweeted at the time, clarifying her comments. “CAMERON DIAZ is NOT retiring from ANYTHING. And for more breaking news, I am NOW retiring from being Cameron Diaz’s spokesperson.”
Diaz admitted that she “retired” a few weeks later, while reuniting with Blair and Christina Applegate for a Q&A with Entertainment Weekly about their 2002 comedy, The Sweetest Thing.
When asked if the three had previously reunited since filming, Diaz replied, “Maybe I should, you know, I mean, I’m down. I’m literally doing nothing.”
“I am actually retired, so I would love to see you ladies,” she added.
Then, in an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow last August, Diaz explained how she’s found “peace” since leaving acting.
“I just decided that I wanted different things out of my life. I had gone so hard for so long, working, making films, and it’s such a grind. And I didn’t make any space for my personal life,” she admitted. “And then I decided to stop making movies and really focus on my personal life, my personal relationships with my family, my friends. And then Benji and I met each other and we got married pretty much immediately because we both knew that we both had to do it.”
Diaz also addressed the idea of potentially returning to acting with Naomi Campbell for her YouTube series, No Filter With Naomi, last October.
“I feel really resolved. I mean, I never say never to anything, first of all,” she said at the time. “But I feel really resolved. I haven’t made a movie since 2014. It’s been a long time, it’s been seven years or six years since I made a film. Girl, I am OK with that.”
“There’s no part of me that’s like, ‘I gotta get back in front of the camera’ or anything like that. ‘I gotta go act!’ I don’t feel that way,” she continued. “That’s not to say I won’t some day, but I’m very resolved in where I’m at right now.”
