Cameron Diaz Is Back Onscreen After 10 Years Away, but Will 'Reserve the Right to Say No to Doing a Movie Ever Again'

Mar. 15, 2025

Cameron Diaz attends a screening of ‘Back in Action’ in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 15, 2024.Photo:Tristar Media/WireImage

Tristar Media/WireImage

Cameron DiazisBack in Action— but don’t call it a comeback just yet!

“I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” Diaz said when asked if she’s back for good. “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,” she said, adding that she’ll be doing “no more romcoms, only momcoms.”

Jamie Foxx as Matt and Cameron Diaz as Emily in ‘Back in Action’.John Wilson/Netflix

John Wilson/Netflix

Diaz also touched on her return to the big screen in abehind-the-scenes clip with Netflixthis week, explaining that she “didn’t think” she’d be making another movie. “I was perfectly happy just living my life, doing other things,” Diaz said. “Day in and day out, not movies. And then I get a phone call from Jamie Foxx, and how do you say no to Jamie Foxx when he says, ‘Hey, I’ve got this big action comedy that we can just have so much fun on.’ "

“If there’s anyone I’m gonna go back and spend months on end, on set, having a ball, laughing with, it would be Jamie,” she added.

Diaz last appeared in 2014’sAnnie, telling Netflix that over the last decade, she said “no to everything” and put “most of my focus” on her wine company, Avaline, and her children. Shelaunched the brand in 2020and sharestwo kids, Cardinal, 10 months, andRaddix, 5, with husbandBenji Madden.

“One of those little fantasies that all parents have is that their kids could see them as they existed before they had all of the weight of the world of being a parent on them,” Diaz shared. “Children just can’t see their parents that way.”

“And maybe, just maybe, their kids will believe them when they say, ‘Yeah, I was pretty cool,’ " she added.

Cameron DiazCameron Diaz attends a screening of ‘Back in Action’ in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 15, 2024.Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty

Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty

Diaz’s return to acting with the action-comedy was previouslyannounced in June 2022. A source close to Diaz told PEOPLE at the time that she felt “a bit rusty and nervous,” but “mostly excited,” about her comeback — and that Madden “encouraged her to unretire.”

“So it was literally, ‘Do you wanna have some fun? Just have some fun!’ And I think that’s what brought her to it,” Foxx said at the time. “We miss special moments sometimes in our business, and I think this is a special moment. So we’re so happy that it’s happening and looking forward to it.”

Back in Actionwill be available to stream on Netflix on Jan. 17. As previously reported, she is alsoexpected to returnalongsideMike MyersandEddie MurphyforShrek 5, which has been pushed back to hit theaters on Dec. 23, 2026, timed to DreamWorks' 25th anniversary.

source: people.com