Diaz has told the story of when, as a young woman starting out in the world, she moved to Paris to pursue a modeling career. In the US she had made money as a catalog model, but in Paris “I didn’t work a day. I was there a whole year and didn’t work a day. I couldn’t get a job to save my life. “I got a job, but I really think I was like a mule carrying drugs in Morocco – I swear to God.” Diaz became one of the highest paid women in Hollywood and the queen of romcoms from My Best Friend’s Wedding to Sex Tape. Before that, in the early 1990s, Diaz recalled the modeling job, which included being given a locked suitcase “that had my ‘suits’ in it… quote, unquote.” It wasn’t until she was at the airport in Morocco and asked to open it that she started to think, “What the hell is in this suitcase? I’m like this blond girl with blue eyes in Morocco, it’s the 90s, I wear ripped jeans and platform boots and my hair is down. I’m like… this is really unsafe.” She explained that it wasn’t her case and she had no idea whose it was. Fortunately for Diaz, this was before the rigid security measures in place at airports today. “That was the only job I ever got in Paris,” he told Hillary Kerr on the Second Life podcast series. Shortly after the incident in Morocco, Diaz, 21, was cast in The Mask, her feature film debut. The producers wanted Anna Nicole Smith for the role of the “blonde bombshell,” but Diaz’s agent convinced her to try out as well. “I thought ‘are you crazy?’ I don’t play, first of all… that’s not what I do.” She impressed the film’s director, Chuck Russell, and after a few more callbacks, Diaz, then a complete unknown, landed the lead role as Tina Carlyle. After a highly successful film career including Shrek and Being John Malkovich, Diaz “retired” from Hollywood in 2014. Her last role was as Miss Hannigan in a remake of Annie. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST As well as launching a ‘pure’ wine brand, Diaz, 50 next month, has authored two health books, The Body Book and The Longevity Book. Last month, it was revealed that Diaz was returning to the movies starring alongside Jamie Foxx in a Netflix movie called Back in Action.
