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Diaz said she was struggling to find work as a model in Paris in the weeks before landing her breakout role in "The Mask," and then she finally got this one job.
It's a good thing Cameron Diaz landed her big breakout role in Jim Carrey's 1994 hit "The Mask" or her life could have taken a very different path. Not that we think she would have continued a possible life of crime, but she arguably had a toe in.
The actress, who returns to acting with the appropriately titled "Back in Action" opposite Jamie Foxx for Netflix, opened up about her unexpected trip to Morocco -- and close call -- during a recent appearance on the "Second Life" podcast.
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View StoryShe explained how it came about after she took a chance on her burgeoning modeling career by moving to Paris after finding some success as a catalogue model in the United States.
"I got enough money to move to Paris and get an apartment, which I shared with a girl who is still one of my best friends," she shared, per The Daily Mail. "But I was there a full year and didn't work one day. I couldn't book a job to save my life."
Finally, she got a gig, but it wasn't at all what she expected. She was offered an opportunity to model in Morocco, and young and naïve and excited, she jumped at it.
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View Story"This was the early '90s and they gave me a locked suitcase that had my 'costumes' in it," she recalled.
She can't swear to it, but told the podcast, "I think I was a mule carrying drugs to Morocco -- I swear to God."
She said she slowly came to realize what was happening when she reached customs at the border. "What the f--- is in that suitcase?" she found herself wondering, per ET Canada. "I'm this blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in Morocco. It's the nineties, I'm Âwearing torn jeans and platform boots and my hair down ... this is really unsafe."
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View StoryShe said she told the officers, "I don't know, it's not mine, I've no idea whose it is." Security was looser in airports then so she was allowed to leave it with them and got out of there back to France.
It was her first and last job in Paris, and probably for the best, as it opened her up to star in the 1994 smash hit that launched her career, with a little urging from her agent when she pushed back that she didn't act.
For 20 years, she was the queen of romantic comedies before stepping away from acting until she credits Foxx and Tom Brady for convincing her out of retirement.
Diaz and Foxx collaborated in her last film project as well, 2014's "Annie." Their latest project is expected to start filming later this year. No release date has been announced.
