Cameron Diaz Explains Why Nothing ‘Could Change My Mind’ About Retiring In 2018

Cameron Diaz says leaving the business was “just something I had to do.”

The “Charlie’s Angels” star was still a bona fide A-lister when she retired in 2018. Now, with a decade behind her since she last appeared on-screen in 2014’s “Annie” adaptation, Diaz opened up about the decision to quit and her impending return to the spotlight.

“It was just something I had to do,” Diaz said Monday at Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Summit” in Laguna Niguel, California. “It felt like the right thing for me, to reclaim my own life, and I just really didn’t care about anything else, I didn’t.”

“And 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,” the actor, who married Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden in 2015, continued.

After her breakout role in “The Mask” (1994) and a star-making turn in “There’s Something About Mary” (1998), Diaz was off to the races. She worked with directors as acclaimed as Oliver Stone and Martin Scorsese and superstars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise.

Despite establishing herself as a lead actor with blockbusters like the “Charlie’s Angels” films and becoming an integral part of the billion-dollar “Shrek” franchise, Diaz started thinking about family — with her decision to retire only growing stronger during the 2020 pandemic.

“After Covid, we were in the house for a long time, which was amazing and the problem was we would probably stay there, we would still be there right now,” Diaz said Monday, per The Hollywood Reporter. “People would be like, ‘It’s over’ and I’d be like, ‘No it’s not.’”

The actor had her first child in 2019 and welcomed her second earlier this year.

“I think it really comes to, what are you passionate about?” Diaz said Monday. “For me, it was to build my family. For other people, it might just be, ’You know what? I went to school for this, and I’ve done it my whole life, and I know how to do it really, really well … but it doesn’t feed my soul.’”

While she’s since announced her comeback (and is set to star in a dark comedy opposite Keanu Reeves, a fifth “Shrek” film and an action movie opposite Jamie Foxx), Diaz says she simply listened to her “soul” when she decided to quit — and promised the crowd that they could, too.

“You’re gonna figure it out,” she concluded.