NEED TO KNOW
Cameron Diaz is continuing to stretch her acting muscles.
The actress is staying in the Netflix game with a starring role in the upcoming Jake Szymanski-directed action-comedy Bad Day, PEOPLE confirms. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the movie will begin shooting this fall in New York and New Jersey.
Diaz, 52, will star as as “a single mom fighting to keep one little promise to her daughter on the absolute worst day of her life,” per a release, with Laura Solon and Mark Moran executive producing and Beau Bauman producing for Good One Productions.
Bad Day will feature a script by Solon (Let It Snow, Office Christmas Party). And while it’s pitched as a comedy, the film will be based partly on the 1993 drama Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and directed by the late Joel Schumacher, THR reports.
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Bad Day will serve as Diaz’s sophomore screen project since she returned to acting following a decade-long hiatus, during which she married Benji Madden and became a mother of two — to daughter Raddix, 5, and son Cardinal, whose birth the couple announced in March 2024.
Diaz’s first movie role since her long-awaited return was opposite Jamie Foxx in the action-comedy Back in Action, which costarred Glenn Close.
And Bad Day isn’t the only project on her film slate, as Diaz is set to reprise her iconic voice role as Princess Fiona in Shrek 5, currently slated for release on Dec. 23, 2026.
She will be joined by fellow Shrek franchise veterans Mike Myers (Shrek) and Eddie Murphy (Donkey), as well as a newcomer to the cast: Zendaya, who will voice Shrek and Fiona’s daughter Felicia.
Back in January, Diaz reflected on her gratitude in coming back to the industry, saying on The Graham Norton Show “that the door was even open for me after a decade was amazing” and crediting Foxx, 57, for her return to movies.
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“It is a privilege to make films, and we are all so lucky to do what we do,” the Charlie’s Angels star continued, adding that while she “loved those 10 years for me and my family,” she also thought, ” ‘If I let this go away, if I don’t engage again and if I don’t give it chance, I am a fool.’ ”
“It might be the beginning of something, but it’s here now, and I am grateful for it,” Diaz said.
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During a interview with Empire the previous month, the actress revealed it was “hard to say” if she’d return for another movie after Back in Action.
“I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,” Diaz said when asked if that film marked a permanent return. “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.”
She also joked, “No more romcoms, only momcoms.”
