Cameron Diaz is opening up about her experience on movie sets prior to the #MeToo movement.
“The industry is so different. I definitely have to say that the #MeToo movement changed everything,” Diaz, 52, said during a Friday, February 7 interview on the “SkipIntro” podcast. “I mean, it’s palpable. You walk on to the set and it’s different.”
The actress went on to explain that “it wasn’t just the higher-ups” that were engaging in inappropriate behavior during the making of a film, adding that “there was always just that one guy you know on set.”
“All my girls, all my hair and makeup, they were ditching these dudes,” she continued. “There was always, like, layers and layers of inappropriateness. Some people, you have to be forceful with and put up the boundaries. Others, you can’t give the time of day. And it has changed — it’s not the same.”
Diaz famously left the entertainment industry behind in 2014 to focus on her family and her organic wine business, Avaline. She made her triumphant return to the “big screen” 10 years later, starring alongside longtime friend Jamie Foxx in Netflix’s Back in Action.
On Friday, Diaz discussed how different the environment was on the set of her latest film.
“I never in my entire career had HR come in prior to a movie and talk about what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior, [or a] hotline, which Netflix has, to call anonymously to report any issues that you might be feeling,” she explained. “So I was like, ‘Wow, that is… that’s amazing.’ The level of security and safety that you feel as a woman now on set — I never have felt that before this film, because I haven’t been making movies.”
In the same interview, the actress also discussed why she decided to return to acting — a decision she said hinged on her costar, Foxx.
“Honestly, it’s because I’ve worked with Jamie twice before and I just know him as a person and I know him as a professional,” she explained. “It’s such a tricky thing — going to work every day with somebody. Like, what are you going to get? The unknown is something I wasn’t interested in, sort of putting myself in that position.”
She added, “I haven’t done a film in 10 years. If I’m gonna go back to doing what I really was happy stepping away from, then who I do it with is really, really important, you know? And I knew what I was going to get with Jamie as a partner, as a professional [and] as a talent.”
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