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By the time Cameron Diaz turned 40 years old she was one of the most successful actresses in her age group, with blockbuster hits like "Charlie's Angels," "There's Something About Mary," and "Shrek." But she made the surprising move to leave the Hollywood industry close to a decade ago now.
"When you're doing something that you know and you've done well and you know how it works and it's consumed your whole life for so long, it's kind of a nice thing to kind of go, 'You know what? Let me just step back for a second,'" Diaz said in a CBS interview Monday. "'Take a look at what the whole picture looks like for me, and what are the things that I could do better and be more engaged with that would make me feel more whole?' And I did that."
Diaz was responding to "CBS Saturday Morning" co-host Dana Jacobson, who asked Diaz why she left her career behind when she was at the top of her game. Diaz was the highest-paid actress over the age of 40 when she decided to quit the business, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This isn't the first time Diaz has opened up about her choice to leave acting. Last year, she spoke with Kevin Hart on an episode of his Peacock talk show, "Hart to Heart."
"For me, I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me," she said. "My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself."
As reported by Insider's Jason Guerrasio, Diaz admitted that it got to a point in her fame that parts of her life were "handed off to other people."
Diaz married Good Charlotte band member Benji Madden shortly after her life change, and they had a daughter together in 2019.
Now, she's returning to the industry with a newly announced Netflix movie called "Back in Action" co-starring Jamie Foxx. Last month, news broke about that project and Foxx said he connected Diaz with NFL star Tom Brady to help encourage her out of retirement.
