The action-comedy overcame more than the usual amount of hurdles on the way to the screen, all the way up to its New York premiere being canceled in solidarity with the troubling times in Los Angeles.

Back in Action' director Seth Gordon tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx supported each other throughout filming — when the actress marked her return to acting with her first movie in over a decade and the actor had a medical emergency during production in April 2023.