Cameron Diaz’s first new film in 10 years, Back in Action, premieres on Netflix tomorrow (!!), and the mom of two has a very relatable reason why she’s been out of the action for a decade. In a vulnerable new interview, she explained how she’s just like “every other mother” when it comes to finding that ever-elusive balance between working and mom-ing.
“I didn’t think I was going to make another movie,” Diaz says in an interview for Netflix about the time before she was approached by director Jamie Foxx to star in this film. “I was perfectly happy, you know, just living my life doing other things, you know? Like day in and day out, not movies.”
During that time, she said she was “not keeping up with any kind of training” or anything. “I did nothing public. I said ‘no’ to everything,” she said with a laugh (which, same!). “Other than for my wine,” the Avaline Wine founder continued, adding, “That was what I was putting most of my focus on if I was doing anything other than just sort of being a mom and living my day-to-day. And that was pretty much it.”
“I’m just trying to stay alive. Just like every other mother,” the Charlie’s Angels alum, who shares daughter Raddix, 5, and son Cardinal, 9 months, with husband Beni Madden, continued. “I’m just trying to keep it going.”
Being a mom is tedious and exhausting, especially when you clean up the same mess five times a day or feel like your entire life revolves around snacks, diaper changes, sports, laundry, and more snacks. She may be an actress, but Diaz is a mom too, and she gets it!
Another reason Diaz wanted to work on this action-comedy film was so that she could do something cool for her kids to see one day. “This is one of those like little fantasies that all parents have, is that their kids could see them as they existed before they had all of the weight of the world of being a parent on them,” she explained in the interview about the film about former CIA spies pulled back into espionage. “Children just can’t see their parents that way.”
Madden gave Diaz a pep talk when she decided to return to work, and we love seeing a supportive king! At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in October, Diaz revealed, “We were in the house for a long time, which was amazing. So, I had to push myself.”
“My husband, he’s just the best,” she continued about the Good Charlotte rocker. “He was just like, ‘You’ve been supporting us and building the family.’ And supporting him in his businesses. He’s like, ‘It’s time for us to support you and let mommy ascend and do her do her thing.’” So amazing!
“It felt like the right thing for me to reclaim my own life, and I just really didn’t care about anything else,” the There’s Something About Mary star continued. “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. I think it’s it really comes to what are you passionate about? For me it was to build my family.”
These celebrity parents have admitted to struggling with work-life balance.
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