Cameron Diaz shot to fame with her breakout role in The Mask, which is marking its 30th anniversary.
The actress was 21 years old when the comedy, starring Jim Carrey, debuted in theaters back in 1994. She played Tina Carlyle, love interest to Carrey’s loan officer Stanley Ipkiss, in her first big-screen performance.
Director Chuck Russell previously said he auditioned “a lot of actresses” for the part, but Diaz stood out to him.
“Cameron was a model, she hadn’t acted before, but I saw her picture in [casting director] Fern Champion’s office and I said, ‘Well, who’s this?’ They told me and I think she was modeling in Japan at the time and she just had a fantastic look,” Russell told Forbes in 2019.
“Something came through of her personality, even in that picture,” he continued. “We weren’t just looking for the prettiest girl you could find because in Los Angeles…
