‘No more rom-coms’: Star of iconic movies says she’s done with genre

Cameron Diaz has finally made her triumphant return to movie stardom, but it comes with a caveat her longtime fans may not love.

The star of “The Holiday,” “There’s Something About Mary” and other popular romantic comedies outright said she’s done with the genre.

Diaz, 52, currently co-stars with Jamie Foxx in the new spy thriller “Back in Action” (now streaming on Netflix), her first film since 2014’s “Annie,” which also co-starred Foxx. In the movie, Diaz and Foxx play former CIA spies who are drawn back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.

In a recent interview with Empire, Diaz reflected on her return to acting and remains undecided on whether not she’s back for good.

“I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” she told Empire. “If I say it then it becomes this thing. I reserve the right to say no to doing a movie ever again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I decide to. I’m not defining anything. I’m just open to whatever makes sense for me and my family at any given moment.”

But Diaz sounded certain of one thing: She’s moving on from the genre that brought her great fame starting in the 1990s.

“No more rom-coms, only mom-coms,” said the mother of two.

Read the full Empire article.

Indeed, Diaz is a rom-com icon.

After debuting in 1994’s Jim Carrey slapstick vehicle “The Mask,” she began to appear in somewhat edgier romantic comedies like “She’s the One” and “Feeling Minnesota” in 1996 before her mainstream breakthrough continued while supporting rom-com queen Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” just a year later.

Diaz became a superstar and a go-to Hollywood lead with 1998’s gross-out comedy hit “There’s Something About Mary,” and she continued as a face of the genre with others like “The Sweetest Thing,” “The Holiday,” “Knight and Day,” “Bad Teacher,” “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “The Other Woman” and “Sex Tape.”

But Diaz wasn’t limited to a single category, stretching the movie genre spectrum while working with A-list directors in films like Spike Jonze’s “Being John Malkovich,” Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday,” Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and Ridley Scott’s “The Counselor.”

She also became the face of the “Charlie’s Angels” action franchise and served as one of the key voices in the globally successful “Shrek” animated film series.

Following the release of “Annie” in 2014, has written a book, invested in startups and launched a wine brand. She will next appear in the film “Outcome,” co-starring Keanu Reeves and Jonah Hill (who is also directing), along with Alabama’s Laverne Cox and Roy Wood Jr.