From a dream debut in the film Mask to portraying a multitude of characters across film genres including the memorable Elizabeth in Bad Teacher and Natalie in Charlie’s Angels (2000), Cameron Diaz had a glorious run in the film industry.
One day, she decided to leave the glamour and glitz behind and start over, far away from the fame and name of Hollywood.
The question is: Why? Most importantly, has Diaz hung up her acting boots for good?
“Time To Live For Myself….”
In an exclusive essay-interview written for InStyle, the Knight and Day actress had shed light on her new life-perspective and how it's slowly, but surely, taking her on a path away from the industry.
“I started (experiencing fame) when I was 22, so 25 years ago—that’s a long time. The way I look at it is that I’ve given more than half of my life to the public. I feel it’s okay for me to take time for myself now to reorganize and choose how I want to come (back) into the world... if I decide to. I don’t miss performing. Right now, I’m looking at the landscape of wellness and all that. But whatever I do, it has to do something I’m passionate about—something that just feels effortless.”
Aside from her acting chops, it was Diaz’s effortless charm that had men swooning and women emulating her cool persona that kept the model-turned-actress in the top league for long.
However, things had begun changing for Diaz, 47, after tying the knot with American musician and songwriter Benji Madden.
“I Learned So Much About Who I Am…”
Earlier, the former model wasn’t a vocal supporter of getting hitched. “I have gratitude. I know myself better. I feel more capable than ever. And as far as the physicality of it, I feel better at 40 than I did at 25,” Diaz said, as quoted by HuffPost.
Little did she know that fate had different plans for her.
Interestingly, Diaz had spoken about finding contentment in life as it was back then, when she was seeing Alex Rodriguez in 2011. When quizzed about what her thoughts were about marriage being termed as a dying institution, she had said, “I do think we have to make our own rules. I don’t think we should live our lives in relationships based off of old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer.”
As a young San Diego starlet, settling down was never in her scheme of affairs. Nor was the idea of a ‘perfect man.’
“It’s hard to say. It just wasn’t the thing I was drawn to. I certainly didn’t want it in my 20s. Or in my 30s,” Diaz had explained. Her sentiments echoed loud and clear again in another separate-publication May 2014 interview. “I don’t know if anyone is naturally monogamous.”
The same year, in a November-published Marie Claire interview, Diaz stood her ground. “I’m not looking for a husband or marriage....I’m living, not thinking what I should or shouldn’t be doing with my life.”
That was the viewpoint of her 30s. Once the 40s commenced, the new author's opinions began to evolve. She wasn’t rejecting the idea of marriage completely.
“We’ll see,” Diaz had said about marriage, as reported by HuffPost in a separate interview, hinting at her open-ended approach.
Cut to January 5, 2015, and Diaz married Joel Madden’s twin brother Benji in a “super private” ceremony, after knowing the vocalist and lead guitarist for years, and dating him for a little over seven months.
The two hadn’t publicly spoken about their engagement, before getting married in a surprise ceremony. Revealing little about her romance, Diaz, in a 2015 interview with Cosmopolitan, had said, “You have to find someone in the same place as you are. Timing is everything. If you get into a relationship where you want something and the guy doesn’t want, it’s never gonna work. You’re never going to get him to that place. No matter how old you are, finding the guy who’s in the same place as you are and wants to show up, is the only way a relationship works, period.”
“I Am Done…”
It was the marriage ship that took Diaz someplace else—a life beyond films, red-carpet appearances and magazine cover features. And the actress, it seemed, couldn’t have asked for anything better....or that’s what Selma Blair thought.
According to Metro, Blair, Diaz’s co-star in the 2002-released film The Sweetest Thing, had met the latter for lunch where Diaz had spoken about retiring from films.
“I had lunch with Cameron the other day. We were reminiscing about the film. I would have liked to do a sequel but Cameron’s retired from acting. She’s like, ‘I’m done.’”
“I mean, she doesn’t need to make any more films. She has a pretty good life, I don’t know what it would take to bring her back. She’s happy,” Blair had added further. The revelation left the media in a frenzy. However, the Cruel Intentions actress was quick to clarify that it was all a ‘joke.’
Too late... the fire had broken out and there wasn’t any stopping it.
The Quiet Life
After much media speculation, it slowly became clear that Madden's presence had brought a new, homely Diaz to the forefront and as Blair had revealed, nothing could change it.
“At this point, I’ve done so much, I feel fulfilled with the adventures I’ve sought out in my life. I’m in a great place, and the world is so different now too,” Diaz had elucidated further in her aforementioned InStyle essay-interview.
To reinforce her decision even further, Diaz, who, last December, had given birth to her first child Raddix Madden, recently revealed in an Instagram-Live interview with Who What Wear CEO Katherine Power, that she’s enjoying motherhood to the hilt.
“I love being a mother. It’s the best, best part of my life,” Daily Mail quoted Diaz. She explained how she was living the quarantine life for some time. “I’ve kinda been living a quarantine life anyhow because I have a three-and-a-half-month old. So my life has been completely quiet and still for the last few months. But it’s nice, and I love a bubble and being in the womb of my home with my husband and cooking,” she gleefully revealed.
Looks like Diaz has hung up her acting boots for good and stored it away in a corner, enjoying the new offerings that life has bestowed upon her.