Cameron Diaz Says She Would Have Been a ‘Fool’ Not to Return to Acting After 10-Year Hiatus: 'Grateful for It'

"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," the actress said of her new movie 'Back in Action'

Cameron Diaz is opening up about her return to acting.

During the Jan. 17 episode of The Graham Norton Show, the actress, 52, appeared alongside her Back in Action costar Jamie Foxx to discuss their new movie, her first in a decade, and shared how Foxx, 57, influenced her decision to make a comeback.

“I am back all thanks to Jamie,” she said. “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.”

She added, “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.”

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“It is a privilege to make films, and we are all so lucky to do what we do,” she continued. “That the door was even open for me after a decade was amazing.”

The Holiday star went on to say, “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 chance, I am a fool.’ ”

“It might be the beginning of something, but its here now and I am grateful for it,” she added.

During a interview with Empire last month, Diaz revealed it's "hard to say" if she'll return for another movie after the Netflix action comedy,

“I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” Diaz said when asked if Back in Action marks a permanent return. “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."

The Berlin premiere of Back in Action on Jan. 15 marked Diaz’s first movie premiere in 11 years. The mother of two sported wide-legged jeans, a sheer black top, a long trench coat and a bold lip for the red carpet as she posed alongside Foxx.

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Back in Action follows former CIA spies Emily and Matt as they go back to work after their secret identities are exposed.

Diaz's last movie was 2014's Annie, in which she also starred with Foxx. The duo first appeared together onscreen in 1999's Any Given Sunday.

The Other Woman star revealed in June 2022 that she would be returning to acting, with Foxx telling Entertainment Tonight at the time that he convinced her to come back by promising that they would have fun.

"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. "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."

Diaz — who shares daughter Raddix, 5, and son Cardinal, 11 months, with husband Benji Madden  —  revealed on Kevin Hart's Peacock talk show, Hart to Heart, in 2021 that she realized around age 40 that there were "so many parts of my life ... that I wasn't touching" or "managing."

"I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me," she explained of her retirement. "My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself."

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In a behind-the-scenes interview from her new movie, Diaz also shared how she prioritized just two things during her hiatus: her family and her wine company, Avaline.

"That was what I was putting most of my focus on," Diaz explained. "If I was doing anything other than just sort of being a mom and living my day-to-day."

"That was pretty much it," she continued. "I'm just trying to stay alive just like every other mother. I'm just trying to keep it going."

Back in Action will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday, Jan. 17.