After he had an alleged meltdown on the set of their upcoming movie Back in Action which dragged her out of retirement, many people are wondering what all this Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx drama is about.
In 2014, Diaz stepped away from acting and four years later, declared she was fully retired. The Charlies Angels star explained to Kevin Hart on his talk show Hart to Hart in 2021: “When you do something at a really high level for a long period of time, when you’re the person that’s sort of delivering on this one thing, everything around, all parts of you that isn’t that, has to sort of be handed off to other people,” Diaz said. “Just, the management of me as a human being… Cameron Diaz is a machine. But for my personal, spiritual self, I was realizing that one part of me that functioned at a high level wasn’t enough.”
But Diaz was lured back into the business by Foxx to star alongside him in the upcoming Netflix action-comedy film; his fifth original for the streaming giant. They worked together on 1999’s sports drama Any Given Sunday and 2014’s Annie remake, which was Diaz’s final film role before “retiring.” Here’s why she might be calling it quits on the industry again.
What is the Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx drama?
What is the Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx drama? The Sun reported on March 15, 2023, that production for Foxx and Diaz’s film Back in Action—her first film in nine years—had temporarily halted and four people had been fired after Foxx had a “meltdown” on-set. “There have been some issues on set and Jamie has had a major meltdown over it all,” the insider said. “He demanded the problems be sorted immediately and sacked four of the production staff — as if that would magically improve the situation.” The source added: “Some people working on it are totally fed up with how this has played out and Jamie has become pretty unpopular.”
Cameron Diaz, Benji Madden. Getty Images
According to the Daily Mail, a worker on the film had tried to involve Foxx in a $40,000 scam. The same employee may have been involved in past attempted scams involving wealthy celebrities, and police were allegedly called to the set of Back in Action over the Foxx dustup. A source told The Sun: “This film has been a bit of a nightmare… There have been a lot of delays, especially with the weather thanks to filming outdoors in London in winter, but the latest issue is a bit more sinister. One staffer has been sacked, and there are investigations after someone tried to get access to £33,000 in cash from Jamie Foxx.”
The insider continued: “It sounds as though they tried to offer up a Rolex watch as part of the deal but now there’s an investigation into everything going on. People will be glad when this thing finally wraps.” With regards to the impact all of this has had on Foxx’s friend Diaz, the source said: “She hates drama and confrontation. This is why she retired in the first place.” A day later, paparazzi photos obtained by the Daily Mail (see them here) showed Diaz and Foxx getting back to work. “Cameron was seen frowning and looking concerned in some moments on set, before filmed [sic] tense scenes together which saw them looking shocked at something,” the tabloid reported.
Foxx announced he was bringing Diaz on for the project in June 2022. In a phone call/publicity stunt, Foxx conferenced in Tom Brady (the NFL GOAT who famously retired then unretired 40 days later) for some tips on how to get back in the game, so to speak, after a break. “I’m relatively successful at un-retiring,” Brady joked. Diaz said, “Jamie Foxx, only you could get me back in action. I can’t frickin wait it’s gonna be a blast!”
Diaz told Gwyneth Paltrow in the Wednesday, August 5, 2022 episode of In Goop Health: The Sessions video series that “it’s so intense to work at that level and be that public and put yourself out there. There’s a lot of energy coming at you at all times when you’re really visible as an actor. I’m sensitive to some energy and not others. I do get the overwhelming energy of the attention that’s being put toward me.” She added that at one point, Diaz paused and examined what her world outside of acting included and she wasn’t happy with what she saw. She had, after all, married Good Charlotte’s lead guitarist in 2015 and the couple welcomed their first child, daughter Raddix, in 2019. “I really looked at my life and I saw what I had been — when you’re making a movie, it’s the perfect excuse, they own you — and I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people,” she said. “They took it. I basically had to take it back and take responsibility for my life.”
She continued: “Overwhelming your life becomes so narrow. Everybody’s doing things for you and you’re catered around,” the Mask star told Paltrow, 47. “I never felt really, truly comfortable with that. I understood it was part of the job, and for me, I needed to become self-sufficient again.” She added: “I really needed to know that I could take care of myself [and to learn] that I knew how to be an adult.”
Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission from the sale.