Cameron Diaz delighted she has ditched her innocent on screen image

Cameron Diaz is delighted she has ditched her innocent on screen image.

The 36-year-old actress - who plays a mother whose daughter has terminal cancer in ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ – enjoyed the challenging maternal role because it was completely different to her usual parts.

Cameron – who shot to fame after starring in several hit comic films - said: “I'm not going to be the 23-year-old ingenue again. If I tried to hold on to that, I'd be a pretty unhappy individual. I don't make movies for my ego. I do them for my personal growth and to give something to an audience.”

Despite growing close to her 13-year-old ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ co-star Abigail Breslin, the blonde beauty is still unsure whether she will become a mother herself.

She explained: “I don’t declare either way if I’m going to have children. I don’t know what will happen… and I’m totally fine with that.”

Earlier this month, Cameron said she found it easy to empathise with her character Sara Fitzgerald even though she is not a mother herself.

Cameron - who recently split from British model Paul Sculfor - said: "I think we all related to the fact that there isn't anything that you wouldn't give someone that you love that deeply. You do whatever it takes to keep that person alive. I think that that's something that spoke to most of us, for this film, and what I think is so effective in the film."