Cameron Diaz Reflects on ‘Palpable’ Industry Change After #MeToo and Her 10-Year Hiatus

Cameron Diaz feels like she returned to a “changed” film industry. During a January interview with Skip Intro, the actress — who returned to her first role after a 10-year hiatus with Back in Action — shared that she noticed more protections for folks on set.

“You walk onto the set and it is different. It wasn’t just like the higher-ups [back then],” she said on the Netflix podcast. “There was always just that one guy, you know, on set, that you were like, ‘God, here he comes again.’”

“There were always layers and layers of inappropriateness that you just kind of had to put up with,” she added. “As women, you just had to like [laugh it off]. Some people you have to be forceful with and put up the boundaries, and others you can’t give them the time of day.”

Diaz reiterated that she thinks things are now just “not the same” as they used to be, and that she had never had HR come before a film to explain “what is appropriate and what is inappropriate behavior.”

“There’s a hotline, which Netflix has, to call anonymously to report any issues that you might be feeling,” she said. “Wow, that is amazing. The level of security of safety you feel as a woman now on set is. … I never felt that before this film.”

Diaz reflected on the fact that many Hollywood women of her generation were “conditioned to walking the tightrope” and how “dangerous” it could be for them in the space. “What you’re really doing is just staving off the inevitable, which is at any moment something [that] could crush you that’s bigger than you,” she said. “That’s not safe. That’s not safety.”

She continued, “We’re on a more level playing field than we’ve ever been on, and it feels different. And that’s a really important thing. That’s truly a powerful thing.”

Diaz’s new film alongside Jamie Foxx premiered on Jan. 17 on Netflix. She’s set to reprise her role as Princess Fiona in Shrek 5 and will join Jonah Hill’s Outcome. Diaz’s last role, before Back in Action, came in 2014 with Annie.