Cameron Diaz Marks Her Return to Hollywood While Keeping Her Family 1st: ‘A Lot More Grounded’

Cameron Diaz had a stressful movie comeback after Jamie Foxx’s medical issues brought Back in Action to a standstill, and an insider exclusively tells In Touch where she stands with balancing motherhood and any future roles moving into 2025.

“Cameron wants to act more and she’s technically open to read scripts and entertain offers, but she is also realistic about how competitive it is for actresses in her age bracket,” the source says. “The people in her world don’t see her taking another long hiatus, no matter what happens with Back in Action. Family is always going to come first for Cameron and that’s something you just have to factor in when you get into business with her.”

The insider continues, “And that’s the big difference between who she is now and the way she did things in her 20s and 30s when she would do three or four movies back-to-back without a break. That kind of insane schedule made her rich and steadily resulted in hit movies, but Cameron barely had a personal life during those years and she’s a whole lot more grounded now that she has something to live for beyond her movie career.”

Cameron’s upcoming film, Back in Action, was originally slated for release on November 15, but in April 2023, Jamie, 57, was hospitalized just as the movie was nearing the end of production. Due to Jamie’s medical issues, Back in Action’s release date was pushed back to January 17, 2025. There were rumors of tension brewing on the set behind the scenes, and news of the movie’s delay set the rumor mill spinning. However, Cameron, 52, claimed that was never the case.

“I really hate all of the things that were being said about our set at the time,” Cameron told “Lipstick on the Rim” podcast hosts Molly Sims and Emese Gorley during the December 19, 2023, episode. “You just want to scream at the top of your lungs, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Jamie is, like, the cheerleader for the entire crew. Everybody loves him. We have so much fun on the set with him and he’s just a professional on every level.”

The Charlie’s Angels star’s return in Back in Action marks the first time she’s taken a role in over a decade. The last movie Cameron appeared in was Annie in 2014, and after the release of the film, she decided to step away from Hollywood to focus on her family. Cameron shares two children, Raddix and Cardinal, with husband Benji Madden.

“For me, it was just something I had to do. It felt like something I had to do to reclaim my own life. And I just really didn’t care about anything else,” Cameron said during an appearance at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit on October 13. “Nobody’s opinion, nobody’s success, no one’s offer, no one’s anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and building the life that I really wanted to have. What are you passionate about? For me, it was to build my family.”