Cameron Diaz Credits Jamie Foxx with Her Return to Acting After 10-Year Hiatus: ‘Most Talented Man in the Business’

Cameron Diaz is giving props to her costar Jamie Foxx!

The actress, 52, shared on a Friday, Jan. 17 episode of The Graham Norton Show that her return to the screen in the pair’s latest Netflix action-comedy, Back in Action, is “all thanks to” Foxx, 57.

“I had 10 years of not paying attention to anything; not accepting any advances, and then I got this script and thought that maybe it was time,” Diaz said. “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.”

“It is a privilege to make films, and we are all so lucky to do what we do,” she added. “That the door was even open for me after a decade was amazing. I loved 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 a chance, I am a fool.’ It might be the beginning of something, but it’s here now and I am grateful for it.”

Back in Action marks Diaz’s first film since 2014’s Annie, which also starred Foxx. The pair first appeared on screen together in 1999’s Any Given Sunday.

In addition to Foxx, Diaz has also previously credited her husband, Benji Madden, with encouraging her to return to her professional career after an extended hiatus.

“He’s just the best,” the actress said of Madden, 45, during an October 204 conversation at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit per E! News, “We were in the house for a long time, which was amazing.”

According to Diaz, Madden, who shares daughter Raddix, 5, and son Cardinal with Diaz, “was like, ‘You’ve been supporting us and building the family.’ And supporting him in his businesses. He’s like, ‘It’s time for us to support you and let Mommy ascend and do her thing.’ ”

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Diaz revealed in an interview with Empire on Monday, Dec. 13, that it’s “hard to say” if she’ll return for another film after Back in Action. “I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” Diaz said. “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’s interested in “no more romcoms, only momcoms.”

The actress also shared in a behind-the-scenes clip with Netflix this week that she “didn’t think” she’d be making another film and was “perfectly happy just living my life” before she got the call from Foxx.

“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,'” she said. “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.”

Diaz added that while she was on hiatus, she put “most of my focus” on her children and her wine company, Avaline, which she launched in 2020.

Back in Action is now available to stream on Netflix.