Cameron Diaz Thinks She Was Once a Drug Mule Before Hitting It Big in Hollywood
Before Cameron Diaz was “Back in Action,” the actress got her start transporting drugs across international borders. And no, this is not the plot of her next action film.
Diaz revealed during the “Second Life” podcast (via Yahoo! Entertainment) that she “didn’t work a day” as a model in Paris but, rather, found an alternative profession.
“I was there a full year, and I didn’t work one day. I couldn’t book a job to save my life,” Diaz explained. “I got like one job, but really I think I was like a mule carrying drugs to Morocco — I swear to God.”
The “Knight and Day” and “Charlie’s Angels” action star continued, “It was before TSA or anything like that. It was like early ’90s. They gave me a suitcase that was locked that had my ‘costumes’ in it — quote, unquote.”
Diaz flew from France to Morocco with a suspicious suitcase, prompting Moroccan officials to ask her who owned the luggage and if she could open it. Diaz later explained that its contents were not hers.
“All of the calculations in my head went running back, like ‘what the fuck is in this suitcase?’ I’m this blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in Morocco, it’s the ’90s, I’m wearing torn jeans and platform boots and my hair down, and this is really unsafe,” Diaz said. “That was my only job I ever got in Paris.”
Soon thereafter, Diaz booked her breakout film role in 1994’s “The Mask” opposite Jim Carrey while still living in Paris. She returned to the States and quickly took off in Hollywood, landing parts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “There’s Something About Mary,” and “Being John Malkovich” through 1999. Diaz’s hits continued with “Vanilla Sky,” “Gangs of New York,” and “The Holiday,” before the star announced her retirement in 2018.
Earlier this year, Diaz opened up about the “heavy, heavy misogyny” she endured early in her career during the 1990s and early 2000s.
“Just the level of exploitation of powers, it just laid on the entire industry,” Diaz explained. “It was the normal thing to do sort of like [laugh] and just be able to get through unscathed.”
Diaz is set to return to the big screen opposite “Annie” co-star Jamie Foxx in Netflix comedy “Back in Action” with production starting in late 2022.