Parting ways. Celebrities such as Cameron Diaz and Rick Moranis rose to stardom in Hollywood — only to leave their acting careers in the past.
Diaz got her start with a role alongside Jim Carrey in the 1994 film The Mask. The actress continued to find success with movies including My Best Friend’s Wedding, There’s Something About Mary, Vanilla Sky, Charlie’s Angels and many more.
After exchanging vows with Benji Madden in 2015, the Golden Globe nominee confirmed her decision to step away from acting. She welcomed daughter Raddix in 2019 via surrogate.
In August 2020, the California native reflected on her decision to hit pause on her career. “I really looked at my life and I saw what I had been — when you’re making a movie, it’s the perfect excuse, they own you — and I realized I handed off parts of my life to all these other people,” she explained during an episode of the “In Goop Health: The Sessions” video series. “They took it. I basically had to take it back and take responsibility for my life.”
Diaz later noted that her priorities shifted since she stopped acting.
“It’s just a different time in my life now,” she told Yahoo Finance in March 2021. “Now I’m here and this is the most fulfilling thing that I’ve ever done in my life. [To] have a family and be married and have our little nucleus of a family. It’s just completely the best thing. … I don’t have what it takes to give making a movie what it needs to be made. All of my energy is here.”
Earlier this year, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that the Shrek actress was “still very close” with Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow and more of her friends from the industry.
“[They] were both hugely supportive and pleased for her to forge her own career path,” the insider shared. “Naturally they asked if she was certain this was what she wanted, but there was no doubt in their minds that Cameron could always come back if she wanted to. It wasn’t and still isn’t a total forever thing. But once the decision was made, Cameron never really looked back. She’s had numerous offers but politely declined them each and every time.”
Moranis, for his part, made a name for himself starring in projects including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Ghostbusters. The comedian stepped away from Hollywood to focus on raising his children, Mitchell and Rachel, after his wife, Ann Belsky, died of cancer in 1991.
The actor offered a rare glimpse into his decision, telling USA Today in 2005, “I pulled out of making movies in about ’96 or ’97. I’m a single parent, and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it.”
Scroll down for more stars who chose to part ways with Hollywood over the years:
