Cameron Diaz says she laughed off ‘heavy’ misogyny in film industry to ‘get through unscathed’

‘The level of exploitation… it just laid on the entire industry,’ actor recalled

Cameron Diaz has admitted that fame made her feel like a “child” because you “can’t do anything for yourself”.

In a new interview, the actor said that she took roles in franchises including Shrek and Charlie’s Angels because they subverted “typical” narratives about women.

“I certainly didn’t do as much as could be done now, because of the awareness of everybody, #MeToo,” she said on Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers podcast.

“There were still parameters. The 1990s, the early 00s – there was still heavy, heavy misogyny. The level of exploitation… it just laid on the entire industry.”

Visage recalled how the system was so entrenched in sexism that she would often laugh off the misogyny, with Diaz agreeing: “It was the normal thing to do to [laugh] and just be able to get through unscathed.

“Be the one who participated enough to make everybody feel taken care of but not to be a victim in that position. To know how to navigate the whole thing because it was happening all day, every day in every little feeling of layers of existence. It’s a very different thing now, I think.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Diaz admitted that fame made her feel like a “child” because you “can’t do anything for yourself”.

“Fame is very infantilising,” she said. “They treat you like you’re so precious you can’t do anything for yourself, everything should be done for you… It very much takes away from your own sense of autonomy and ability to take care of yourself.”

Diaz retired from acting in 2018, explaining that she now wanted “different things out of her life”.