Cameron Diaz Ends Her Retirement With First Acting Role In 8 Years

The "Charlie's Angels" star will appear alongside Jamie Foxx in the Netflix comedy "Back in Action."
Cameron Diaz announced her retirement from acting in 2018, saying the decision allowed her to better manage her time.
Cameron Diaz announced her retirement from acting in 2018, saying the decision allowed her to better manage her time.
Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Cameron Diaz is officially ending her retirement with plans to return to her chosen profession.

The star of “Charlie’s Angels” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” will appear opposite Jamie Foxx in the fittingly titled Netflix comedy “Back in Action.” The two actors have worked together twice before, in 1999’s “Any Given Sunday” and 2014’s “Annie.”

Variety reports that Seth Gordon, whose Hollywood résumé includes “Horrible Bosses” and “Four Christmases,” will direct the movie.

Though details of the project are otherwise scarce, Foxx confirmed Diaz’s casting Wednesday afternoon by tweeting a snippet of a phone conversation between the two actors.

“I’m so anxious right now. I’m, like, pacing the room,” Diaz proclaimed, before adding: “I feel excited, but I don’t know how to do this.”

Moments later, Foxx connected Diaz with NFL superstar Tom Brady, who announced his retirement from professional football earlier this year only to rejoin the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 40 days later.

“I was talking to Jamie, and he said you need a few tips on how to un-retire,” Brady quipped to Diaz. “I’m relatively successful at un-retiring.”

It’s unclear whether Brady will have any further involvement in “Back in Action.” No release date for the film was confirmed.

Diaz announced her retirement from acting in 2018, four years after last appearing onscreen in “Annie,” which garnered mixed reviews.

“I’m semi-retired, too, and I am actually retired, so I would love to see you ladies,” she told her “Sweetest Thing” co-stars Christina Applegate and Selma Blair during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Diaz and husband Benji Madden welcomed a daughter, Raddix, in 2020. Last year, she admitted she still loved acting, but said her decision to step away from Hollywood had allowed her to better manage her schedule as a new mother.

“I just looked around and there were so many parts of my life that I wasn’t touching and that I wasn’t managing, and I couldn’t really manage, because everything was so massive,” she told Kevin Hart in a 2021 appearance on his “Hart to Heart” podcast. “For me, I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me. My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself. It’s the best feeling.”

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