Drew Barrymore explains how Cameron Diaz inspired her to pause acting and go green

Drew Barrymore hasn't left show business completely, but the iconic actress has taken a step back from the silver screen, and she clarified what role her longtime best friend and "biggest inspiration" Cameron Diaz played.

"I think that [Diaz] and I are the type of people that don't really want to make any declarations about where we're at," Barrymore told Entertainment Weekly while promoting a partnership with natural lawn care program Instead. "She could very well end up back in movies, but also maybe she won't and she'll still be totally happy. I think both of us, we've been doing this our whole lives and we love what we get to do, and sometimes it's fun to just shift gears and bring something else to the forefront, and it's still awesome."

The Golden Globe winner later added: 

"Cameron Diaz, one of my best friends who happens to have a very famous name—which is hilarious because none of us rolls like that at all, because we're so not fabulous—she inspired me to be more environmentally conscious. We've been friends since we were 14 and 16, but when we started working on Charlie's Angels, she began barking at me like a Doberman. ... When we did the pilot/sales pitch tape for the show, I got down on one knee and proposed to her that I would finally commit to being more environmentally conscious. I did all of this in honor of my best friend, who's been trying to wake me up about this for two decades."

Barrymore debuted her talk show The Drew Barrymore Show by welcoming Diaz and fellow Charlie's Angels co-star Lucy Liu as guests last September: