Barely escaped jail: Cameron Diaz used to smuggle drugs

Cameron Diaz has actually retired from the film business, but will soon be back with an action film on Netflix.

Barely escaped jail: Cameron Diaz used to smuggle drugs

Cameron Diaz has actually retired from the film business, but will soon be back with an action film on Netflix. That she made it to Hollywood at all is nothing short of a miracle. She almost ended up in prison as a drug mule, as she now admits.

Cameron Diaz (49) almost didn't have a Hollywood career. As the actress revealed on the "Second Life" podcast, she was abused as a smuggler before her big break - and almost got arrested. So she tried her luck as a model in Paris at the time, but didn't get any orders for a year: "Then I got a job, but I think I was a drug courier who transported drugs to Morocco," says Diaz.

Her bosses gave her a locked suitcase and told her that it only contained her costumes. Only when she arrived at the airport in Morocco did she realize that she was carrying illegal substances. She immediately panicked and handed the suitcase over to the local officials - also out of fear of a prison sentence of at least ten years for drug trafficking.

"I told them: 'I don't know, it's not mine, I have no idea who owns it.'" She assured the customs officers at the airport that this was her first and last job in Paris. She was "this blonde, blue-eyed girl in Morocco," with "torn jeans, platform boots and loose hair." That's one of the reasons she got a queasy feeling and felt insecure.

After returning to Los Angeles at the age of 21, she had her breakthrough in the early 1990s. She had her first acting appearance in 1994 in the comedy hit "The Mask" alongside Jim Carrey (60), followed by engagements in cult films such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "Very Bad Things" and in 1998 her iconic role in the classic "There's Something About Mary".

The actress had her last film engagement in 2014 in the musical adaptation "Annie". In 2018 she finally announced her retirement from acting and fulfilled her dream of having her own family. After only seven months of dating, Diaz married rock band Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden in January 2015. In 2019 their daughter Raddix Chloe Wildflower Madden saw the light of day.

But it doesn't really work that way without acting. Just a few days ago, Diaz announced her comeback. She will be back in front of the camera alongside Oscar winner Jamie Foxx for a Netflix film called Back in Action.