Cameron Diaz Says She 'Had To' Step Away From Hollywood

A friend of mine a long time ago gave me this imagery, which I thought was really interesting. It was like a jellyfish has to suck into itself before it can propel forward. So if you think of a jellyfish, all of its power, even any of these, it comes into itself and it pushes forward. And I always thought of that as like, I can't go forward anymore if I don't come into myself and I don't pull in all of my energy and my power to be able to thrust forward. Hello, hello. Hi, everybody. Hi, ladies. Yeah, hi. Cameron, Catherine, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. I think everyone's really excited to see you and we're here to talk about your wine brand, Avaline, which I hope everyone is drinking. What a great group of women. Totally. So, Cameron, you must have had so many opportunities over your career to start a brand, whatever may have crossed your path. So why did you decide to do wine? Catherine Power. Period. No, I, you know, there's obviously in the world of celebrity, a lot of people come to you. They want you to sign on to whether it's, you know, something that they're going to pay you for, something they want you to invest in. There's a lot of different opportunities. I, myself, have never been sort of a product person. My products have always been movies. So I sold my films really well, you know. I pounded the pavement. I went out there. I pushed my, you know, pushed my product. But I didn't really ever take on sort of a product because I didn't want to put my name on something. And it just wasn't my bag, you know what I'm saying? But Catherine and I are good friends. We were, you know, we spend a lot of time together. We would always kind of find each other at friend gatherings where we would sit in the corner and have a glass of wine and talk about food and houses and, you know. Be a little antisocial. And, you know, one day we just sort of had that moment where we were just like, what is in the bottle? Like we asked this question about everything else that we consume. But we both realized we had never thought to ask about the wine because it kind of felt like one of those really romantic notions that wine was just like fermented grapes, you know. How fun that is and like squishy and warm it felt. And then we were like, but is it? Because I feel like every time I have like a glass and a half, you know. So like, what's happening? So we turned the bottle around and realized that it was, you know, there was no label. There was no ingredient list. And we thought to ourselves, hmm, that's very interesting. We wouldn't consume something of anything else if we didn't know what was inside of it. Like literally the ingredients. And we said, is it just fermented grapes? And that led us onto a path of learning about how, what the winemaking process was and how there could be over so many ingredients added with no, you know, transparency. And all the different things that those ingredients were and could become and that we would never consume otherwise. You know, we just wouldn't, if we saw any of those on a label, we would just take our hands off of the product and never consume it. So we decided that we were going to make a wine that we could drink and feel good about and put, give to other wine lovers and give, you know, really be the brand that was leading that transparency and that people could, you know, depend on to have the highest quality. Amazing. You know, Catherine, why was it that the wine industry had not been part of these conversations around ingredient transparency, organic products, non-toxic products? Those conversations have gone pretty mainstream. How had the wine industry avoided it? And has anything changed since you launched the brand? Yeah, it's a very old fashioned industry. And, you know, it's not a product that's governed by the FDA. It's governed by something called the TTB. So they don't have the same kind of oversight as any food that we would eat or other even beverages that we would consume that are non-alcoholic. So it used to be, you know, you would go into a wine store and if a wine was organic, it would be kind of pushed off to the side and it would be kind of like a dirty word, right? Even though many, you know, producers and growers across Europe are farming without pesticides, making wine in this really beautiful way without a lot of additives. And it was really a personal journey that we set out to, you know, find cleaner wine. And when we couldn't find it in Los Angeles, which is like the mecca of wellness, we thought, this is a problem. So we would go to the restaurants, we would go to the stores, and we would say, do you have any clean wine? Do you have any organic wine? Do you have any natural wine? And people would roll their eyes at us. They were so snobby. Or they would say, it's all organic. It's just grapes, you know. But we knew from doing the research that, as Cameron said, you can add over 73 ingredients throughout the process, many of which, you know, these ingredients at high levels can be toxic, without any transparency. So we really wanted to lead the charge. Not only did we want to be able to drink. We love wine. You know, we love good wine. We wanted to be able to continue to drink it. So we created it, you know, first for ourselves and then felt compelled to share our story with our consumers. And I think we've really championed this whole new movement in Better For You Wines. Now we have dedicated organic month at grocery stores and menus that note, you know, if something's biodynamic or organic. And so the industry is really coming around, but it's a very old-fashioned industry that needs a lot of pushing. Yeah, laughing at you. I can't imagine. Cameron, what does your ideal wine setup look like? You're having a glass. Where are you? What's going on? Oh, I mean, in this room with these ladies. I'm red. You know, I think that's one thing for us with Avaline. You know, you think a lot of times about wine as sort of this, you know, celebratory beverage where you're like, you're sitting down. You serve it at an event or you serve it at a dinner party. But Catherine and I really wanted Avaline to be sort of your everyday drinking wine, the one that you put on the table, you know, and you, you know, that's why we put the, with our three core wines, we put the screw tops on because we're like, pull the cork out. What are you going to do? You're going to put it back in? Is it going to say? Like, I don't want to drink the whole bottle, you know? So we put the screw cap on so that we could, you know, have a glass of wine with dinner and put it back in the fridge and tomorrow night I'll have another glass of wine with dinner. I just want a glass, I just want a glass of wine. And so that's kind of, you know, we kind of say it's your everyday wine. It's the glass that you enjoy wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, doing your laundry, doing, you know, watching the baby monitor. I don't know. You just insert it wherever it works for you. Yeah. Okay. That's a beautiful vision. You know, Catherine, as Cameron alluded to, like you have launched several successful brands of your career, but this is really the only one that could be considered a quote unquote celebrity brand. So what made Cameron the right partner for you? And what's your view on what makes for a successful celebrity brand and what does not work? Yeah. Even though I have a celebrity brand or participate in one, I don't necessarily believe in them just broadly, right? Cameron is a founder of this business. I mean, we literally, you know, the first dollars into the business were ours. We picked the Pantone chips. We knocked on doors in Europe trying to convince these old world wine families to work with these two girls from Hollywood. Like, you know, it is not a celebrity brand. It's a brand that needed to exist that we wanted to build so that it would stand on its own. And now we're at the point where when people learn it's Cameron's brand, they're pleasantly surprised, but they've actually heard of the brand first. And so that's how I know we've done a good job. And I think, you know, it's very hard as a venture or private equity-backed business to have a celebrity attached. I think alcohol is maybe one of the only categories where we're still seeing a lot of M&A around celebrity brands. But there's often a lot of risk in that. And so they just don't trade. They don't get the investment. And ultimately, you know, you have to take a business to an exit. So as an investor, it's actually not something I'm super excited about. But for a brand like Avaline that needed to exist no matter who the founders were, you know, we were just two passionate people, you know, that brought different perspectives to this new business we created. And of course it doesn't hurt, but... Yeah. Well, you know, part of your strategy is targeting what you've called this Xennial consumer, who's this micro-generation between millennials and Gen X. What is so powerful about this consumer, and what do you get out of targeting her? I love the Xennial customer. So all of my businesses, I have Avaline, I have a beauty brand called Merit. I have a skincare brand called Versed. They all target the Xennial. And it's really somebody who has, you know, who grew up without technology, but now participates in it. They kind of bridge the gap between millennial and Gen X. They're very influential across all different generations. So they show up and they buy it for themselves, but she also buys a bottle of Avaline for her mom, or she goes to Sephora and she buys a blush for her, you know, 13-year-old daughter because it's clean and natural. So we feel like by targeting this consumer, we're actually reaching multiple generations. They're more brand loyal, they're higher, you know, average order value, basket size, all of that. I think it's a very exciting sort of micro-demo. Yeah, it's a really interesting strategy. So Cameron, you made a transition away from acting and took some time to focus on other parts of your life, including Avaline. And you've spoken about wanting to simplify your life and, you know, have a more manageable life that you could handle yourself. And we have a lot of other women in the room who have similarly very high-level, high-powered careers that are very complex and have likely considered some of those same existential questions. So for someone else, considering whether to press pause or to pivot to something else, what advice would you give them about how to know whether it's the right choice and how to do it in a way that serves them? Well, I can only speak for myself. Like, for me, it was just something I had to do. It felt like the right thing for me to reclaim my own life, and I just really didn't care about anything else. I didn't. Nobody's opinion, nobody's success, no one's offer, no one's anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and looking after the, you know, and building the life that I really wanted to have. And so I think it really comes to, you know, what are you passionate about? You know, whether it's, for me, it was to, you know, build my family. For other people, it might just be, you know what, I went to school for this, and I've done it my whole life, and I know how to do it really, really well. I'm at the top of my game, but it doesn't feed my soul, and I always like taking pictures, or, you know, whatever, or I always thought I could be a gardener, or whatever it is. That's the thing you feel in your soul that speaks to you, and you feel peace in it. You're gonna figure it out. You're gonna find a way to go there. And then a friend of mine a long time ago gave me this imagery, which I thought was really interesting. It was like, a jellyfish has to suck into itself before it can propel forward. Right, so if you think of a jellyfish, it's like, all of its power, even octopus, any of these, it's like, comes in, and it comes into itself, and it pushes forward. And I always thought of that. It was like, I can't go forward anymore if I don't come into myself, and I don't pull in all of my energy and my power to be able to thrust forward. So once you figure that out for yourself, and take the time, and however much time it takes you to do it, it doesn't, it's on your timeline, it's yours. You just do that, and you'll find your way to your next passion, or you'll build the passion you're in, so. Wow, amazing. Yeah. On the other side of that, you do have your first project in a while coming out in early 2025, so how did you know it was the right time for you to come back, and how would you frame that for others who are considering whether to get back into something? It was just the right time for my family. After the COVID, I was like, we were in the house for a long time, which was amazing, and the problem was that we would probably stay there, we would still be there right now. People would be like, it's over, and I'd be like, no, it's not. It is not. It's not over for me. So I had to push myself. My husband and I were like, you know, and my husband, who's the best, he's just the best, he was just like, you've been supporting us, and building the family, and supporting him in his businesses. He's like, it's time for us to support you, and let Mommy ascend and do her thing. He's like, let me see you do it, girl. All right, here we go. Are you excited? I'm really excited. I mean, also Jamie Foxx. I couldn't say no to Jamie. He said, come with me, and I was like, okay, let's do it. It's our third film together. Amazing. Yeah. What have you taken with you from this time, you know, focusing on other things, and including building Avaline? What have you learned from your time as a founder that you're now bringing into other parts of your life? Well, I mean, we were talking about this on the way down. You know, it's entrepreneurial endeavors are creative endeavors, you know? It's about creativity. It's about finding something, and making something out of nothing, right? And telling a story, and, you know, picking pantomimes, you know? But we, you know, it's a creative endeavor, so I think it's just a natural thing for me personally to create, and Catherine's a phenomenal entrepreneur who knows how to build a business, and also is very creative, and, you know, an artist in so many ways. So the two of us just, we just had a lot of fun doing it. It just felt really natural. I don't think we ever, like, as many people who told us, no, you can't do it that way, we just were looking at them like, whatever. You can't do it that way. We can. Watch us. We'll figure it out. So, yeah. That's a motto. You know, Catherine, something that really separates you as a founder is that you've not just built one successful brand, but you have this entire portfolio where you've built so many. So what is the key to that repeat success? How do you build not just one, but several brands? You know, they all come from a white space in the market, and they usually line up with the personal need that I have, or a problem that I want to solve, you know, and that I want to solve for other people. So it kind of starts with that, and then, you know, I use data to validate that opportunity, and even in the early days of Avaline, we went on our Instagram and said, you know, ask questions about wine. Do you know what organic wine is? How often do you drink wine? And we, you know, it's just like all these things to inform, you know, what we wanted to create, and you start to get signals, you know, from people from the universe that you're headed in the right direction, and then, you know, from there it's just about putting the right people together. You know, not unlike, you know, doing a film, right? It's like there's a brand, there's a narrative, and then you've got to put the right team together to execute it. Yeah. So, Cameron, has this, you know, scratched a founder itch for you? Should we be keeping an eye out for any other brands, any other projects from you? Only if Catherine does it with me. Seriously. That's it. Amazing. Well, thank you both so much. It was a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. You're awesome. Great. Thank you.