Cameron Diaz Says She's "Dealt With Inappropriateness" On Sets, Is Shocked To Find That Netflix Has A Hotline To Report Misconduct
Cameron Diaz says, "There was always just that one guy on set" that made you go, "God, here he comes again."
What do you do when someone is acting inappropriately toward you at work? You go to HR, of course. But Cameron Diaz, who’s been in Hollywood long enough to remember when on-set misconduct was normalized in the industry, is surprised that Netflix now has an anonymous hotline for reporting inappropriate behavior.
Diaz, who recently came out of retirement for Netflix’s Back in Action, hopped on the streamer’s Skip Intro podcast and marveled at how much the industry has changed since the #MeToo movement. “The industry is so different. I mean, I definitely have to say that the #MeToo movement changed everything. It’s palpable. You walk onto the set and it is different.”
“It wasn’t just the higher-ups, you know what I mean? There was always just like that one guy, you know, on set that you were always going, ‘Oh God, here he comes again.’”
“There were always layers and layers of inappropriateness that you just kind of had to put up with. As women, you just had to like [laugh it off],” she continued. “Some people you have to be forceful with and put up the boundaries, and others you can’t give them the time of day.”
Diaz, who hadn’t been on a set in over a decade, was stunned to learn that Netflix takes workplace harassment seriously. “I have never in my entire career had HR come in prior to a movie and talk about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate behavior. And there’s a hotline, which Netflix has, to call anonymously to report any issues that you might be feeling. Wow, that is amazing.”
To be clear: this is a woman who’s been in the industry for 30 years. And this is the first time she’s felt this level of protection on set.
“The level of security of safety you feel as a woman now on set is – I never felt that before this film.”
Looking back, Diaz realizes just how much of her career was spent working in an environment when safety wasn’t a priority… and sadly, neither was consent. “Our generation” of actresses, she explained, “were so conditioned to walking the tightrope.”
“And tightropes are dangerous. But when you get good at walking the tightrope and you can, like, manage it all, there is some sort of empowerment that you feel. But it’s a false sense of empowerment, because what you're really doing is just staving off the inevitable, which is at any moment something could crush you that's bigger than you.”
“That’s not safe. That’s not safety. That’s just you doing your best and pushing what we have as women, which is power in ourselves, to not be crushed as much as you can.”
Diaz isn’t saying the industry is fixed, we’ve got a long way to go, but she does acknowledge that it’s evolved. “But here we are: We’re on a more level playing field than we've ever been on, and it feels different. And that's a really important thing. That’s truly a powerful thing.”
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