‘Back in Action’: Cameron Diaz Un-Retires to Join Jamie Foxx in Netflix Movie
Cameron Diaz is coming out of acting retirement to star in Jamie Foxx‘s upcoming Netflix movie Back in Action. The fittingly titled film is set to begin production later this year. And Foxx recruited an expert in un-retiring to help Diaz prepare for the role: Tom Brady. Foxx shared a recorded phone call between the three of them as he announced Diaz’s casting.
“Cameron I hope you aren’t mad I recorded this, but no turning back now,” he tweeted. “Had to call in the GOAT to bring back another GOAT. @CameronDiaz and I are BACK IN ACTION – our new movie with @NetflixFilm. Production starting later this year!!”
The Charlie’s Angels star tells Foxx she’s anxiously pacing around a room in anticipation of announcing the news. But she assures him she’s excited to be coming back. And that’s when Foxx brings the surprise guest onto the call.
“Oh my god, is this Tom Brady?” Diaz asks, as Brady responds, “I was talking to Jamie, and he said you need a few tips on how to un-retire. I’m relatively successful at un-retiring.”
“Honestly, exactly what I needed,” she says with a laugh.
Cameron I hope you aren’t mad I recorded this, but no turning back now. Had to call in the GOAT to bring back another GOAT. @CameronDiaz and I are BACK IN ACTION – our new movie with @NetflixFilm. Production starting later this year!! 🦊🐐 pic.twitter.com/vyaGrUmbWb
— Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) June 29, 2022
Foxx and Diaz previously c0-starred in 1999’s Any Given Sunday and the 2014 Annie reboot, which was Diaz’s last movie role. Other past films include There’s Something About Mary, The Sweetest Thing, Bad Teacher, The Mask, Vanilla Sky, and more. After a four-year hiatus from the big screen, the Shrek star confirmed she had retired from acting in 2018. While out of the business, Diaz created a wine brand and welcomed a child with husband Benji Madden in 2019. She explained her reason for retiring in a video interview with Gwyneth Paltrow for Goop.
“When you’re making a movie, it’s a perfect excuse. They own you,” Diaz shared. “You’re there for 12 hours a day. For months on end, you have no time for anything else. I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people, and they took it.”
In 2021, Diaz told Kevin Hart she hated the feeling of her life being “handed off to other people” as an actor. “I just really wanted to make my life manageable by me,” she said, per Insider. “My routine in a day is literally what I can manage to do by myself.”
Clearly, Back in Action convinced her to, well, get back in action. The film will be directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) with a script written by Neighbors screenwriter Brendan O’Brien, per Hollywood Reporter. Beau Bauman (Central Intelligence) will serve as producer for Good One Productions, along with Gordon for his Exhibit A banner. Foxx, Datari Turner, O’Brien, and Mark McNair will also executive produce.
Brady does, indeed, know a lot about coming out of retirement multiple times. The football star announced he was retiring (again) in February 2022, but that retirement lasted just 40 days. On March 13, Brady announced he would return to the sport on social media.
Whenever Brady does decide to retire from football for good, he has a job waiting for him at Fox Sports. But first, he’ll be the first subject of ridicule in the new Netflix series Greatest Roasts of All Time: GROAT, which he will also executive produce.
