The last time Cameron Diaz graced our screens, the BAFTA nominee was singing up a storm and cussing out kids as the villainous Miss Hannigan in Will Gluck’s 2014 Annie remake. Now, after a ten-year hiatus from Hollywood, Diaz is gearing up to make her return to movies in aptly titled Netflix joint Back In Action. Assuredly not a remake of *that* early noughties Looney Tunes movie, this one is instead a spy comedy caper from Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon that reunites Diaz with her Annie and Any Given Sunday co-star Jamie Foxx. This time out, the duo play Emily and Matt, a seemingly ordinary suburban couple whose past lives as elite CIA agents comes back to haunt them when their cover gets spectacularly blown.
For Diaz, who’s spent the last decade raising a family with former Good Charlotte guitarist husband Benji Madden, it was the Foxx factor that swung her cinematic comeback. “I thought that if I was going to come back and do a movie, the only person I’d come back and do it with would be this guy,” says Diaz, speaking to Empire for our world-exclusive Captain America: Brave New World issue. “Seriously. I had other opportunities along the way and I was always saying, “No. I’m not doing it, I’ve told you... What? Jamie asked? Jamie? Oh, I can do a movie with Jamie!”
And when it comes to Diaz’s admiration for her co-star, the feeling is entirely mutual. “I feel lucky and blessed that I was able to work with Cameron,” shares Foxx, reflecting on his experience making Back In Action with the former Charlie’s Angels actor. “When people are buzzing about Cameron being back, I feel good that I had something to do with it.”
So, now that Diaz is back in the acting saddle after so many years away, does this mean the Hollywood icon is back for good? “I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” considers Diaz. “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.” Whatever Diaz does or doesn’t do next though, the star has set herself one golden rule: “No more romcoms, only momcoms.” You heard it here first, people: Mom’s the word.