Cameron Diaz was the queen of rom-coms, and in the 1990s, she had attained the pinnacle of her career after receiving several nominations for awards and ranking among the highest-paid Hollywood actors.
However, she made the decision to leave the spotlight at that time, believing that the life of a movie starlet was not for her.
The blonde beauty had begun her modeling career when she was just 16 years old. She traveled the world, starring in advertisements for Calvin Klein and Levi’s.
Five years later, the rising actress from California auditioned for and was cast as jazz singer Tina Carlyle alongside Jim Carey in the film The Mask. She had never taken acting classes before getting that role, but she did an amazing job.
The then-21-year-old actress, who had never acted before, rose to fame as a key player in one of the highest-grossing films of 1994, catapulting her to the top of the acting world.
In almost 40 films throughout the course of the following 20 years, Diaz averaged about three films each year in the 1990s. She acted in a wide range of films, from highly acclaimed productions like Being John Malkovich and Oliver Stone’s sports drama Any Given Sunday to romantic comedies like My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary.
She garnered three nominations for Screen Actors Guild Awards, a BAFTA nomination, four nominations for the Golden Globes, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
However, at the pinnacle of her career, the then-40-year-old highest-paid actress made a decision that would change the trajectory of her life.
The Hollywood beauty revealed in an interview with comedian and actor Kevin Hart that she needed to live her life on her terms.
“I simply wanted to make my life bearable for me, that’s all. My daily schedule is simply limited to what I can accomplish on my own.”
She claimed that she had to take a step back since her work was just serving as fuel for “Cameron Diaz the machine” and not for herself or her spiritual side.
“When you do something at a really high level for a really long period of time, there’s a lot that — when you’re the person who’s sort of delivering on this one thing. You’re the person on the screen, you’re the person who’s ‘the talent’ — everything around you, all parts of you that isn’t that, has to be handed off to other people.”
She claimed that giving up her job and simply doing the things she could handle alone made her feel “whole” once more.
Diaz has dated Justin Timberlake and other Hollywood stars before being introduced to the main guitarist of the Good Charlotte band in 2014.