After Gwyneth Paltrow had Cameron Diaz on her “In Goop Health†interview series, largely to promote her new wine brand, we have two major takeaways. One: Diaz loves wood paneling. Is that teak? Lush. Two: Diaz is really done with acting. At one point in the conversation, the CE-OOP asks Diaz about how her life has changed since turning 40, and Diaz says, “I had gone so hard for so long, working, making films. And it’s such a grind. And I didn’t really make any space for my personal life. And then I decided to stop making movies and really focus on my personal life, my personal relationships, my family, my friends, and then Benj and I met each other and we got married pretty much immediately, because we both knew we had to do it.†Paltrow follows up, asking, “What did it feel like to walk away from a movie career of that magnitude?†Diaz answers:
“A peace. I got a peace in my soul. Because I finally was taking care of myself. Even as you’re saying that, I’m like, aahhhhhhh. I just feel grounded and light. It’s a strange thing to say. I know a lot of people won’t understand it. I know you understand it. It’s so intense to work at that level and be that public and put yourself out there. There’s a lot of energy coming at you at all times when you’re really visible as an actor and doing press and putting yourself out there. And I’m sensitive to energy — some energies, and not others. I do get the overwhelming energy of the attention that’s being put towards me and also I stopped, I really looked at my life and I saw what I had been — because when you’re making a movie, it’s the perfect excuse. They own you. You’re there 12 hours a day for months on end. You have no time for anything else. And I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people, and they took it. And I had to basically take it back, and take responsibility for my life. That’s my job. There’s lots of things I had to iron out and a lot of relationships I had to repair. A lot of relationships I had to build, that I was absent in my life.â€
So those are some of the reasons why she left acting: She’s sensitive to energies (which we guess is Goop-speak for “having empathy?â€), it was time-consuming, and she wanted to spend more time on her relationships, including her marriage to Benji Madden. Diaz also speaks about how actors are simultaneously “infantilized†and pressured with the stress and responsibility of carrying a multimillion-dollar picture. As Diaz puts it, “overwhelmingly, your life just becomes so narrow†and she wanted “to become self-sufficient again.†Look, if I could spend my time making natural wine in my elegant teak-walled home office, I’d quit my A-list acting career, too.