Cameron Diaz says taking a break from acting was the “best 10 years” of her life

Cameron Diaz she’s grateful for her 10-year hiatus from acting — but she’s just as grateful to be back.

“Oh my god, I loved it. It’s been the best 10 years of my life,” Diaz, 52, said Friday. The Graham Norton Show about her retirement from filmmaking. “I could just say, ‘I’m a mom, I’m a wife, I’m living my life.’

Diaz’s last project before her ten-year hiatus was 2014’s Annie, in which she starred alongside Jamie Foxx. She and Foxx, 57, both star on Netflix Back in actionwhich premiered on the streaming platform on Friday.

Diaz went on to say that retiring from acting at the time “made sense for (her) family” because she and her husband Benji Maddenwhom she married in 2015, has two children: a daughter, Raddix, born in 2019, and a son, Cardinal, born in 2024. Diaz added that after a while, “people stopped asking her” to take on new roles. “It was so beautiful,” she said.

Related: Inside Cameron Diaz’s comeback after reaching her breaking point

Cameron Diaz has reached her breaking point. When Annie hit theaters in 2014, it was her 38th film in 20 years. “It’s so intense to work at this level and be so public and put yourself out there,” she told friend Gwyneth Paltrow during an interview with Goop in 2020. “There’s a lot of energy coming in (…)

Diaz offered a few reasons why she finally decided to do another film – Foxx is her teammate in Back in action between them. However, she went on to explain why she finally decided to return to the silver screen.

“It’s a privilege to do this,” she told the host Graham Norton about acting. “I thought if I let it go, all the goodwill, all the things I’ve built up over time, the passion I have for entertaining people and making films that (make people) smile and laugh and have a good time and they’re sitting in the theater or they’re sitting at home and it moves them — if I don’t get into it again and give it a chance and participate in it and be grateful for it, I’d be crazy.”

Despite her return, it has not been decided whether this will be a permanent career move for the actress. “This is maybe the beginning, maybe I’ll tiptoe, maybe I’ll go gung-ho, we’ll see,” she said. “It’s here and I’m really grateful for it.

Earlier this month a the source said My Weekly that Diaz’s decision to act again “evolved over time,” adding, “It wasn’t sudden.”

In a December 2024 interview with EmpireDiaz shared that it was “hard to say” if she would do another film after that Back in actionhe said, “I reserve the right to say no to ever making a movie again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I choose to.”

Back in action now streaming on Netflix.