Cameron Diaz Knew She Had to Be in “There's Something About Mary” After She ‘Fell off the Bed’ Laughing at This Line

Cameron Diaz is reflecting on one of her most iconic movies.

Diaz, 52, explained how she ended up signing on to the 1998 film There's Something About Mary in a new video for Vogue. And she was attracted to the flick — which also starred Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller and W. Earl Brown as Mary’s brother — because she found the script hilarious.

“The first time I read the script, I literally fell off my bed laughing,” Diaz explained. And she still remembered what scene sent her over the edge.

“There’s a description of this scene when my brother Earl punches [Dillon’s character] in the throat,” Diaz said. “For some reason, the thought of him punching him in the throat was the funniest thing to me. I started laughing so hard I literally fell off the bed, and knew I had to do the movie."

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In the movie, Stiller’s Ted has been in love with Mary since high school but has lost touch with her. He hires Dillon’s character Healy, a private investigator, to track her down, but he, too, falls in love with Mary. Brown’s Earl punches Healy in the throat when he touches Earl’s ears, which he is repeatedly warned not to do.

In the Vogue video, Diaz reflected that she got her first movie role — as Tina Carlyle in 1994’s The Mask — by “the skin of my teeth” because she was a model, not an actress. That movie was a major success, and Diaz began working regularly, including in movies like My Best Friend's Wedding and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Related: Which Cameron Diaz Character You Are, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

There's Something About Mary — which married romantic comedy beats with more raunchy, R-rated comedy — grossed more than ​​$360 million at the box office and was the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 1998. Diaz’s performance was particularly lauded, and she received a Golden Globe nomination and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress.

She went on to star in movies like Being John Malkovich, Charlie’s Angels, Shrek, The Holiday and Gangs of New York, among many more. Diaz retired from acting after she starred in multiple movies in 2014 but makes her return this month in Netflix’s Back in Action.

But Diaz has said that she’s not sure that the film will mark a full return to acting. “I reserve the right to say no to doing a movie ever again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I decide to,” she told Empire in December.

"I’m not defining anything. I’m just open to whatever makes sense for me and my family at any given moment," the mom of two said. She added that she’ll be doing "no more romcoms, only momcoms.” Diaz also said that her biggest reason for returning this time around was working with Jamie Foxx again.

"People don't even realize how long we've been friends," Foxx said in a clip the duo shared to social media in December. Diaz said, "True. Since we were in Any Given Sunday together, which was in 1999!" They also starred together in 2014’s Annie.

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