Cameron Diaz Has Starred in Over 30 Movies — Here’s Your Guide to Them All

The Mask (1994)

Bank teller Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) comes across a mystical mask that contains the spirit of the Norse god of mischief, Loki. Wearing the mask not only gives Stanley a wide array of reality-altering powers, but provides the confidence he's never had. He forms a connection with nightclub singer Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz). While the film was a big hit, apparently early on Cameron wasn't sure if the whole acting career would work out. As she related to ET, she had a back-up plan: "I always wanted to be a zoologist, ya see. That is what I was planning for most of my life. As long as I get something from acting then I'll do it and then hopefully by the time I'm 40, 45, I'll be working in zoology."

The Last Supper (1995)

A group of idealistic, but frustrated, liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits for their political beliefs, beginning with a Hitler-loving trucker. Cameron is one of those friends, joined by Courtney B. Vance, Jonathan Penner, Ron Eldard, and Annabeth Gish.

She's the One (1996)

The love lives of two brothers, Mickey and Francis, interconnect as Francis cheats on his wife with Mickey's ex-girlfriend, while Mickey impulsively marries a stranger. The big deal about this one is that it co-stars Cameron and Jennifer Aniston.

Feeling Minnesota (1996)

Cameron plays ex-stripper Freddie, who is forced into marriage to Vincent D'Onofrio's Sam Calyton, but she falls in love with Keanu Reeves' Jiaks (who is Sam's brother) and the situation intensifies from there.

Head Above Water (1996)

The lives of an important judge (Harvey Keitel) and his wife (Cameron) become increasingly complicated after the dead body of her ex-boyfriend (Billy Zane) is found. One particular complication: the judge didn't know is that wifey had a fling with the ex while he was on a fishing trip.

Keys to Tulsa (1997)

Cameron has a small part in this film about a small-time film critic who loses his job, his girlfriend (played by this movie guide's leading lady), his heritage to his local celebrity mother, and finds himself being blackmailed.

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

With friends like this…. Julia Roberts plays a woman who, when discovering that her friend (Dermot Mulraney) is getting married, does everything to break up his relationship with the other woman (Cameron).

A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo play angels sent to Earth to keep a couple (Cameron and Stanley Tucci) together, despite the fact that she shot him, finds herself kidnapped and would rather be with her kidnapper janitor (Ewan McGregor).

There's Something About Mary (1998)

A man gets a chance to meet up with his dream girl, Mary (that would be Cameron), from high school, even though his date with her back then was a complete disaster. Ben Stiller also stars in this film from the Farrelly brothers. Of her character and whether or not she sees similarities between Mary and herself, Cameron says, "Mary is sort of the ideal girl. Whether we're similar is difficult to answer, because you always see yourself in your character. But, although Mary did seem familiar, I always approached her as a character."

Very Bad Things (1998)

Cameron is the fiancee of Kyle Risher (Jon Favreau), whose bachelor party in Las Vegas gets out of hand when a stripper is killed (it's a plot that seems to have inspired Scarlett Johansson's Rough Night).

Being John Malkovitch (1999)

Here's a unique plot: A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich. Cameron is among the cast that includes John Cusack, Orson Bean and Catherine Keener. When Cameron met director Spike Jonze for the first time, she didn't quite know what to think. "I had heard all these things about Spike, how cool and talented he was. Then I met him, and he wasn't anything like I thought he would be," she laughs. "I walked into the Pacific Dining Car, a few minutes late for our meeting, and was escorted to the table. There was Spike, in one of those big, high-backed chairs, nodding off. All I could think was, 'Gosh, who is this guy?' Then I realized he looked like Robert De Niro. That's another of his hidden talents, one of his endearing qualities: he can look like anybody. Sometimes he can look like Matthew McConaughey, and, every once in a while, he looks like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. That really impressed me."

Any Given Sunday (1999)

In this film written and directed by Oliver Stone, Cameron plays Christina Pagniacci, owner and general manager of the Miami Sharks football team, where Jamie Foxx is one of her top players, as is Dennis Quad's quarterback character who is desperately trying to hold on to his career and marriage, all of which seems to be falling apart.

"What I loved about the script and Oliver's approach to the film," she says, "is that at some point you see every character's side. You may not agree, but in the end you're going to have to choose the person you want to take sides with. At some point you have to understand that Christina is representing the future. She knows the way the sport has been played over the past 30 years, as a team sport, achieving a goal together. But at this point in professional football, she knows that those days are over. Christina knows that it's a big money-making business with advertisements, networks, endorsements…an entertainment industry. She's trying to take advantage of that for her team so that it can keep going and start winning again."

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000)

In California, a group of women struggle with personal problems as their paths intertwine in unexpected ways. One of those women is Cameron's Christine, a tarot card reader dealing with the debilitating illness of her lover. Other cast members include Glenn Close and Holly Hunter.

Charlie's Angels (2000)

Three women, detectives with a mysterious boss, retrieve stolen voice-ID software, using martial arts, tech skills, and sex appeal. Based on the '70s TV phenomenon, with Drew Barrymore (who also serves as producer) Lucy Liu and Cameron playing the Angels. For Cameron, the draw to the project was partially because she was looking for an action/adventure film, but mostly because of Barrymore: "I wanted to do it, because Drew Barrymore is the best saleswoman in the entire world. If you want somebody to buy your product, get Drew to taste it, wear it, use it… If she likes it, you're sold."

Recalls Cameron of her first conversation with Barrymore: "I was in my car and got a message that Drew wanted to talk to me. I called her back, and we talked for almost two hours until the battery on my phone ran out. She said, 'It's going to be a chick action movie. We get to be beautiful and tough, and we get to wear bad-ass clothes. We won't have guns, and we get to do kung-fu. In this movie, it's the girls that are going to kick ass.'"

The Invisible Circus (2001)

A teenage girl travels to Paris in the 1970s trying to find out about her sister's suicide, and falls in love with her dead sister's boyfriend. Sounds kind of creepy to us.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate (Tom Cruise) finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover (Cameron, who gets to be pretty crazy in this one). She says her character, Julie Gianni, is a vulnerable woman despite her outward assurance and allure. She finds herself in a precarious emotional position common to many women. “Julie is the good-time girl, the one who always knows how to make people, especially guys, feel comfortable without any pressure. But that isn’t enough for her anymore, especially once she meets David Aames and falls in love with him. They don’t make that commitment to one another, and at first, that’s fine. But when we meet Julie in the film, she’s trying to define the direction of the relationship, and that affects everything in her life.”

Cameron explains that she was drawn to the role, because Julie not only has a unique personality, but she is also someone with whom many women can relate. “She’s 27 years old, she’s not in a committed relationship, and her career is in transition,” she says. “She feels disconnected, even desperate, and then she meets David Aames. She loves him, and he seems to have feelings for her, but the relationship is not quite coming to fruition. Slowly, she realizes he won’t protect her, he won’t be her knight, and she loses her step a little bit.”

The Sweetest Thing (2002)

A girl finds she is forced to educate herself on the etiquette of wooing the opposite sex when she finally meets Mr. Right. The role of that girl — Christina Walters — was the first to be cast, with Cameron coming aboard. "At some point you have to grow. At some point there's something that pushes you into maturity and into another phase of your life," says Diaz. "Peter comes into Christina's world and sort of shakes her cage, rattles it a little bit. She can't ignore that. And she gets this little glimmer of hope — she thinks maybe… you just never know. There just might be a guy out there that's worth it."

Gangs of New York (2002)

In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo Dicaprio) returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher (Daniel-Day Lewis), his father's killer. Cameron plays pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, who is a master of stealing the hearts and possessions of men. Jenny’s vision of a life away from the misery and turmoil of the city compels Amsterdam Vallon, despite the risks of getting close to her. Says Cameron: “This movie is an actor’s dream come true. There’s nothing that you aspire to more than to work with actors such as my co-stars, and to work with Martin Scorsese.”

She was also taken by her character’s sense of hope. “Life is tough for Jenny — there’s violence, brutality, murder, poverty and sickness everywhere. But she’s seen the uptown world and understands there’s something better,” she says. “Jenny knows it’s time to move on, but the question is how to do that and survive.”

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

The Angels investigate a series of murders which occur after the theft of a witness protection profile database. The big bad of this one is played by Demi Moore. What really convinced Cameron to sign on again, she confesses, was the camaraderie she experienced with Barrymore, Liu and director McG. "It's a great partnership. Each day is an adventure. You're never sure exactly what you're going to be called on to do. In this film, among other things, I learned to weld, I surfed, I was in a roller derby, and performed a number with this amazing group of beautiful, sexy dancers called the Pussycat Dolls."

In Her Shoes (2005)

Strait-laced Rose (Toni Collette) breaks away from her party girl sister, Maggie (Cameron), over an indiscretion involving Rose's boyfriend. The chilly atmosphere is broken with the arrival of Ella, the grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) neither sister knew existed.

As the movie begins, Maggie has burned every bridge with her family. She has hit bottom. “Maggie is like a child,” says Cameron. “She seems tough and outgoing, but she’s really very lonely, selfish and self-centered. To make her way through life, she can only use sexuality, looks and charisma. Eventually, she realizes these things are running dry, and that she must adopt a different way of living by relating to the people who love her. But she has always seen herself as a victim. She never takes responsibility for her actions, so she doesn’t really understand how she has arrived at such a bad place. When Rose throws her out, she truly has no friends to rely on, no place to go. She is desperate and terrified, and everything she does stems from that fear.”

The Holiday (2006)

Amanda Woods (Cameron) runs a thriving L.A. marketing business, but is less successful when it comes to romance. “Her most recent break-up has caught her totally off-guard,” says Cameron “She decides she has to get away — and that getting some distance may help her cope better. When Amanda meets Graham [Jude Law], she is attempting to relax and refocus her life. And suddenly, she finds herself falling in love, something she truly didn't expect to happen again so quickly.”

What Happens in Vegas (2008)

Getting drunk and married in Vegas, Joy McNally (Cameron) and Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) find that they have to stay together as a couple due to a judge who won't grant them an annulment, with a huge jackpot also at stake. "I loved the script's 'grass is always greener' theme,"notes Cameron. "People in relationships often think their single friends are the lucky ones, while the singles just want to be in a relationship. In life, it's ultimately about finding your own happiness. It's not enough to be happy just because you're in a relationship; first you need to be happy with yourself. That's something I think my character Joy learns the hard way."

My Sister's Keeper (2009)

Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) looks to earn medical emancipation from her parents who until now have relied on their youngest child to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) remain alive. Anna, it turns out, was conceived primarily for that purpose. Cameron, who plays the girls' mother, Sara, comments, "When I first read the script, it was just one of those stories that haunted me. I connected with Sara, but I didn’t always agree with her, and that interested me.”

The Box (2009)

A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple (Cameron and James Marsden), who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know. What do they do? "It's a question we all kept asking ourselves," Cameron says. "I feel that no one really knows what they would do until they're faced with that kind of decision. On the surface, it's easy to say, ‘I know exactly what I'd do.' But circumstances could be different at any given time, for any person. It's not as simple as it seems.”

Knight and Day (2010)

Cameron plays June Havens, a woman who finds herself mixed up with disgraced spy Roy Miller (Tom Cruise), who is trying to clear his name. Cameron found herself relating to June's discombobulated reaction to meeting Roy. "When Roy and June bump into each other in the airport, they have that moment where you recognize something you've been looking for all your life," she explains. "At first, when June is flirting with Roy, she thinks she's only dealing with the ordinary dangers of falling for a stranger, but it quickly becomes the life-and-death kind of danger, and she has no idea how much she can handle. What I love about June's journey is that she has been holding back in her life and when she meets Roy, it becomes a now-or-never moment for her to seize the day. Roy unlocks that in her. Meanwhile, Roy is this renegade adventurer who thinks he is always seizing the day, but he has never seized the one thing he really wants and needs: love. They're the perfect foils for each other — and they learn to trust each other even when trust is very hard to come by."

The Green Hornet (2011)

Following the death of his father, Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), heir to the man's large company, teams up with his late dad's assistant Kato (Jay Chou) to become a masked crime fighting team. The third component is Britt's secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron), the real brains behind the operation. In the 1930s, when the Green Hornet was created, Lenore Case was a woman ahead of her times. In 2011, Lenore is a woman of her times. "She's smarter than both Britt and Kato put together,” laughs Cameron. "They have no idea what they're doing, whether it's running a newspaper or being vigilante crime-fighters. Lenore is passionate about journalism and she's obsessed with criminology and forensics.”

Bad Teacher (2011)

Some teachers just don’t give an F. For example, there's Elizabeth (Cameron). She’s foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can’t wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. “Elizabeth isn’t a teacher because it’s noble — it’s just a job, a necessity: she has to pay the rent,” says Cameron “In fact, her whole motivation is to find a way that she never has to teach again.”

The opportunity to play a character that is so over-the-top outrageous, but at the same time fully drawn, is what appealed to Cameron: “You just don’t come across parts like this. It just doesn’t happen. And particularly for women. The script is just so subversive and brilliant and so funny. By the time I finished reading it for the first time, there was no question — I had to play her.”

What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)

The lives of five interconnected couples is explored as they experience the thrills and surprises of having a baby. Among the five couples in the film, the one that faces the biggest lifestyle change with the on-set of pregnancy are Jules (Cameron), a celebrity personal trainer with her own weight loss TV show, and her partner, Evan (Matthew Morrison), a professional dancer. "Jules doesn't think she can get pregnant; but she does, accidentally, and it sort of speeds things up for them as a couple," explains Cameron. "They're both dynamic people with really busy careers, and Jules in particular is ‘Type A.' She's used to being in control at all times, and now that's going to have to change."

Gambit (2012)

Colin Firth (as of late a star of the Kingsman spy films) plays an art curator who decides decides to seek revenge on his abusive boss by conning him into buying a fake Monet, but his plan requires the help of an eccentric and unpredictable Texas rodeo queen (that would be Cameron). He might have been better off coming up with a plan B.

The Counsellor (2013)

A Texas lawyer (Michael Fassbender), in order to keep up with his wife's (Penelope Cruz) lavish lifestyle, gets involved with a drug deal that pits him against nightclub owner Reiner (Javier Bardem) and the man's sociopathic lover (Cameron). The film is directed by Ridley Scott, known for his strong female leads, and Cameron is one of the toughest and darkest of them all. "Malkina is a sociopath, and extremely smart," says the actress. "She is capable of anything. There is no humanity in Malkina. The two questions she's always asking herself are: how can I get what I deserve? What do I have coming to me? Nothing else, no one else, is of any concern to her. Malkina is so powerful, because she understands the consequences of her actions more than any other character."

The Other Woman (2014)

Cameron, Kate Upton and Leslie Mann are three women being manipulated and cheated on by a guy (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). When they find out about each other, they join forces for a little payback. Says Cameron, "I thought it was such an interesting concept. When Carly realizes that Mark is married, she doesn't want to have anything to do with him or the wife. But here's this other woman, Kate, who is asking for her help, and there's no way she cannot help her. I just thought that is a beautiful thing. It's about friendship and about women. What I also loved about the script is that it wasn't man-bashing and it wasn't about revenge. It's about a journey that these women take with one another to learn about themselves. The three women's lives are so different that their paths would have never crossed under normal circumstances. And because they have this thing in common, they come together and become a team. What they do to Mark is more to reveal who he is rather than to be vengeful on him. I thought all of those things were unique and a lot of fun to bring to life."

Sex Tape (2014)

A married couple (Cameron and Jason Segel) wake up to discover that the sex tape they made the evening before has gone missing, leading to a frantic search for its whereabouts. Speaking to Refinery29
Cameron clarifies the duo were not nude during filming: “We weren’t making an actual pornography tape. We weren’t having sex. It was movie magic. There’s a lot of angles that we took the time to make sure there were arms in certain places so you couldn’t see the modesty garment. For me and Jason to be walking around with each other naked, not really a professional situation, you know what I mean? Literally, we’d be like, ‘This is our job. We get paid for this.’ There’s a completely different mindset. It’s not like, ‘Hey Jase, I have an idea! Wanna come over and film a sex tape?’ Then we might be naked.”

Annie (2014)

Based on the Broadway musical and previous film version, a foster kid (Quvenzhané Wallis ), who lives with her mean foster mom (Cameron), sees her life change when business tycoon and New York City mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. In creating a new version of Miss Hannigan, Cameron welcomed the opportunity to portray a classic character while also breaking new ground. "I grew up with Annie, and I love Carol Burnett's performance as Miss Hannigan," she says. "When it was announced that I was playing the character, I got people of all ages, all walks of life, coming up to me, 'I hear you're playing Hannigan — I love Hannigan, she's my favorite character!' Everybody knows this character. In this movie, I had a chance to play a role that people are familiar with, but she's been brought into present day in such a fun and contemporary way. So I jumped right on board — it was an amazing opportunity to sing and dance in a film."

Diaz adds, "Miss Hannigan is a wonderful, delicious role to play. You get to be this over-the-top villain while also making kids laugh because you're more ridiculous than scary. Miss Hannigan is like the Wicked Stepmother or Captain Hook – even tiny kids get it: you want to see the hero kid beat the bad guy grownup. So many great comediennes have played this part, and I am proud to be a part of Hannigan's lineage."