How much is Cameron Diaz worth?
Net Worth: | $145 Million |
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Profession: | Professional Actress |
Date of Birth: | August 30, 1972 (age 50) |
Country: | United States of America |
Height: | 5 ft 8 in (1.74 m) |
About Cameron Diaz
Many people don’t know that Cameron Diaz is indeed of Cuban descent. She was born Cameron Michelle Diaz to a Cuban-American father and a German mother. In her youth, she was nicknamed “Skeletor” by her friends but she soon outgrew them becoming tall and strikingly attractive. She attended Long Beach Polytechnic (Poly) High School and allegedly bought weed from Snoop Dogg who was one of her younger classmates. Her parents were incredibly poor, Cameron has said that they “used to collect soda cans to turn in for extra money”. At a party in Hollywood, Cameron Diaz was discovered as a modeling talent and was later signed to a contract with Elite Model Management at the age of just 16 years old.
She was soon appearing in advertisements for Calvin Klein and Levi’s and was featured on the cover of Seventeen magazine’s July 1990 edition, at 17 years old. Her parents agreed to let her travel, including to Japan and Mexico, Morocco and Australia to pursue her modeling career. In Australia, Diaz modeled for 3 months and completed a commercial for Coca-Cola in Sydney in 1991. When she finally returned to California, at the age of 21, she tried her luck auditioning for the female lead in The Mask (1994). Incredibly, she won the part and was cast opposite Jim Carrey. The film was an incredible success, earning $351.6 million from a $18–23 million dollar budget. Suddenly Cameron Diaz was somewhat of a young superstar.
She was soon after cast in the role of Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat (1995) but Cameron broke her wrist while taking karate lessons, in preparation, and was replaced by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras. She continued to work on her acting skills and anything that she deemed necessary to make it as a big star. After appearing in independent films, which paid less, but also helped her develop more, including The Last Supper (1995), Feeling Minnesota (1996), and Head Above Water (1996). She was cast as Kimberly Wallace opposite Julia Roberts in the mainstream film, My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997). Her next film, There’s Something About Mary, transformed Diaz’s image. Nothing could stop her with the kind of box office numbers her films were earning. The film made $369.9 million from a $23 million dollar budget.
After hitting multiple “Sexiest Women Alive” lists, dating back as far as 1995, Cameron was cast as Natalie in Charlie’s Angels (2000) and she never looked back. She was paid $12 million dollars for her appearance. However, it wasn’t until she would appear in its sequel that she would finally match her contemporary, Julia Roberts. Cameron Diaz was paid $20 million dollars to reprise her role as Natalie Cook in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. In doing so, she became the second actress in history to earn that amount from a single role, after Roberts had taken top spot for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, just three years earlier.
Even before that, in 2002, Diaz had appeared as Jenny Everdeane in the Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. A role that Diaz has said “marked a pinnacle moment” in her career. While filming Charlie’s Angels Cameron became best friends with another wild at heart woman in Hollywood, Drew Barrymore. The two have both served as bridesmaids for one another and both are incredibly well connected, forming almost the epicenter of Hollywood. Diaz is also good friends with Gwyneth Paltrow and Bradley Cooper, Demi Moore, Reese Witherspoon and many more.
Today, Diaz is one of the most bankable stars in the business. Her films have grossed over $3.3 billion the US, and over $7 billion globally. After famously having dated Justin Timberlake and Alex Rodriguez, she was introduced to Benji Madden by Nicole Richie in 2014. Richie is married to Madden’s brother, Joel Madden. Cameron and Benji married a year later and Diaz went on acting hiatus officially retiring from acting in 2017. She has however joined the cast for the upcoming film Back in Action, and so we will just have to wait and see.
Diaz’s Total Net Worth
Cameron Diaz has been hard at work in Hollywood ever since she was in her teens. After working as a model and traveling the globe, she descended on the auditioning process being cast in one of the most coveted roles. Co-starring Jim Carrey in The Mask (2004) etched Diaz’s name into the mind of every comedy creator and casting agent in the business. Then, after losing her role in another major blockbuster, Mortal Kombat (1995), Diaz did what it took to survive, which included her appearing in independent films like The Last Supper (1995) with Ron Perlman.
She then climbed back up to her rightful place in Hollywood with her appearance in There’s Something About Mary, a lead role that she was paid just $2 million dollars for. Eventually, she was paid a total of $12 million for Charlie’s Angels and $20 million for its sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, a full $6 million more than her best friend and co-star Drew Barrymore. She allegedly also earned $17.5 million for her role as Jenny Everdeane in, Gang’s of New York.
Diaz can demand a lot for her movie appearances because she is one of the most bankable Hollywood stars. In order to earn a profit from a movie production, producers need actors and actresses that they can count on for bringing with them an audience. Cameron Diaz is exactly that, an actress that, in 2007, Forbes magazine published earns $9 for every $1 that she is paid.
Not only does Diaz earn high paychecks per movie, like the $10 million she earned from Shrek 2, or the $15 million she earned from In Her Shoes. She has also earned as part of percentage deals, which take into account the kind of money that movies earn when Diaz is released as a lead star. For example, for her role as Elizabeth in Bad Teacher, Diaz reportedly earned a simple $1 million as part of an upfront payment but, as part of a percentage of the profits, earned another $41 million.
That is, as the film performed exceptionally well at the box office and a big part of that was her appearance in it. Overall, it is estimated that Diaz has earned, through her salaries, paychecks and deals in the entertainment business, including her books and in advertising, around $235 million dollars.
Of that amount, around $16-27 million is expected to have been paid in business related costs. The remainder, $213.5 million, will have been taxed at a rate of around 48% as Cameron Diaz has been residing between the states of California and New York, but mostly in California, and earned through years of higher and lower taxes, both federally and in state taxes. After tax, it is estimated that her career earnings are at around $111.02 million dollars, having paid $102.48 million dollars in taxes.
In 2015 Cameron Diaz married her boyfriend of 8 months, Benji Madden. They had one child together, Raddix Madden, in 2019, and their personal lives have been peaceful. Cameron has taken part in environmental activism and was an early adopter of the Toyota Prius hybrid, as well as worked to promote Al Gore’s Live Earth campaign, raising awareness of climate change.
In her personal life, Cameron Diaz has likely spent $7-11 million dollars of her career earnings but also probably possesses assets valued at around $2-3 million, not including investment assets. In her investments, she may have earned investment returns of $34-45 million dollars. Therefore, it is estimated that Cameron Diaz has a net worth of around $145 million dollars.
Summing-Up
Diaz didn’t always have it easy. In fact, she went through very testing and troubling times. She grew up poor, her parents would collect soda cans to try and make ends meet. She left home young to pursue her modeling career abroad and there was very little to protect her outside of her own street smarts and karma. Even after reaching success, in 1997, police caught an airline security guard at LAX Airport stealing items from Diaz, allegedly including her passport and large sums of cash. All the while, when everything seemed great upon the surface, Diaz was also fighting her own private battle with a photographer who claimed to possess topless photos of her. He was offering Diaz “right of first refusal” to purchase them for $3.5 million, or else they were to be sold to somebody else.
Fortunately, and eventually, Diaz reported what she considered to be blackmail attempts and the photographer was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison. Through all of it, Diaz has come out stronger and better than ever. She is one of Hollywood’s highest grossing actresses of all time, and despite being retired, she remains one of the most bankable stars. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, and while she is ostensibly still retired, she is slated to appear in Back in Action, an upcoming Netflix Original action-comedy film that has yet to have a release date.