Shocking as it may seem, Cameron Diaz hasn't starred in a major motion picture release
since Annie all the way back in 2014.
How is it possible that the star of such hits as My Best Friend's Wedding and Charlie's
Angels virtually disappeared from the big screen?
Here are a few theories ...
Critical poison
While Diaz isn't known for picking the best scripts, it's still rather shocking to see
just how badly her recent movies have been reviewed.
Case in point: none of her movies have received a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes since
2005's In Her Shoes.
Diaz's recent flicks have been especially painful, with some of the worst reviews of
her entire career coming the last two years she was active as an actress.
Critics said she, quote, "struggles to be one-dimensional" in 2012's Gambit and "overacts
... to the point of hysteria" in 2014's Annie —
"You guys, act well cared for."
"We love you Miss Hannigan!"
"Take it down a thousand.
Nobody’s going to believe that."
— and that's just a small sample of the shade being thrown her way at this point in
her career.
Box office wildcard
To her credit, Diaz can still turn a mediocre movie into a box-office hit when it counts.
Despite middling reviews, 2011's Bad Teacher surpassed the 100-million-dollar mark in 2011,
and made nearly an additional $116 million overseas.
She found similar success in 2014 with The Other Woman, which grossed over $83 million,
domestically, and almost $200 million, worldwide.
But for every hit she's had, she's also had a flop.
The same year The Other Woman came out, Diaz starred in the underwhelming Sex Tape, which
was ripped to shreds by critics and brought in disappointing returns at the box office.
Even the remake of beloved movie-musical Annie failed to catch on with audiences in 2014,
earning just $85 million, domestically, off a staggering $65 million budget.
Squandered potential
Twenty years ago, Diaz was positioning herself to become one of Hollywood's great comedic
actresses.
In 1997, she added depth, layer and humor to what might have otherwise been a stock
character in My Best Friend's Wedding, and critics took notice.
"Don't know just what to do with myself."
More praise continued the following year, when her instantly iconic performance in There's
Something About Mary earned her the coveted Best Actress award from the New York Film
Critics Circle.
She even flirted with flirted with Oscar buzz at the turn of the Millennium, first in 1999
with Being John Malkovich, then again in 2001 opposite Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky.
"We're gonna be together again.
You're gonna forget about Juliana and we're gonna be together.
I'm not gonna be afraid of you anymore."
And in 2002, her performance in Gangs of New York in 2002 even nabbed her a Golden Globe
nomination.
But she followed that up with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and she's been getting mixed
or negative reviews ever since.
Side hustle
Diaz's absence from the big screen may have been deliberate.
In fact, over the last few years, she's been busy carving out a career for herself as a
lifestyle author.
In 2013, she co-wrote the The Body Book: Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body,
which quickly became a wildly popular best-seller.
On the heels of The Body Book's success, she released The Longevity Book, which is about
women and aging.
In an interview with the LA Review of Books, Diaz briefly discussed how being a woman in
her mid-40s can be difficult in Hollywood ...
"You can't play 25 anymore.
You can't play 70.
And to start considering yourself in a position where you have to go, 'I'll play the mom."
"We're all still stuck.
We're stuck in the past or we're projecting into the future.
We all have to accept where we're at."
Self-imposed exile?
While participating in a panel discussion at Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Wellness Summit
in June of 2017, Diaz admitted that the rigors of a jet-setting entertainment career have
worn her down over the years.
She told the panel she had a realization that, quote, "I can't really say who I am to myself"
and that she needed to take a break to make herself "whole."
That break coincided with her marriage to rocker Benji Madden — her husband and self-professed
"luckiest guy alive" since January 2015.
Diaz can certainly afford to take all the time off she wants: She has found more success
in Hollywood than most actors will see in their lifetimes.
In 2013, she was named the highest paid actress over 40 in Hollywood, and her films have earned
more than $7 billion worldwide.
The wildly popular animated Shrek franchise, in which Diaz voiced the role of Princess
Fiona, grossed well over a billion dollars in the United States alone.
Turning it around
Because she won the hearts of audiences and critics early on in her career, Diaz will
always have a place in Hollywood.
And assuming she really wants to make acting the focus of her career, finding her footing
again shouldn't prove to be very difficult.
Choosing better scripts seems like the easiest and most obvious route to take, scripts that
have roles that will challenge Diaz as an actress rather than keep her on autopilot.
Working with better directors might help, too, like Spike Jonze, whose collaboration
helped her earn critical acclaim for her work in Being John Malkovich.
Finding the right role, in the right script that gets put in the hands of the right director
could remind everyone that Cameron Diaz is a terrific actress … but she should probably
leave the singing to the professionals …
"I should be anywhere but here."
Thanks for watching!
Click the Nicki Swift icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!