Jamie Lee Curtis looks back on some of her most iconic roles
Whether you know her from her Halloween ‘scream queen’ roots or her comedic prowess in the body swap Freaky Friday, Jamie Lee Curtis is an actress who needs no introduction.
The star - who had been credited in an astounding 80 projects before her first ever Academy Awards nomination in 2023 for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once - has seen and done it all. Beginning her career at the age of 19, Curtis has spent the years since adding success after success to her resume, and proving her doubters wrong at almost every turn.
And in a candid interview with Yahoo Entertainment, the actress opened up about some of the most memorable roles that have steered her journey in Hollywood.
- Laurie Strode, Halloween (1978)
Curtis made her film debut on the set of John Carpenter’s cult classic Halloween, and though the film (and its entire franchise) is considered to be one of the most influential horror films of all time, the then-19-year-old Curtis found nothing to be scared of while filming.
The reason? Nick Castle, who played the film’s main antagonist Michael Myers, was too much of a delight to instill real terror in Curtis.
“Here's the problem,” she explained. “He's played by Nick Castle, who was one of John's best friends. He had two little kids, his wife was around, and he's this funny guy. And he's also a very talented director and he's a musician. So I cannot lie to you and tell you I was so frightened."
- Tess Coleman, Freaky Friday (2003)
Curtis was actually a last minute replacement for Annette Bening in the 2003 body swap comedy Freaky Friday, but that certainly didn’t put a damper on her experience.
The actress became fast friends with Lindsay Lohan while playing the mother-daughter duo, and the pair have remained in contact ever since. In a fun friendship anecdote, Curtis shared how she has a test in place to find out whether or not it is Lohan texting her, or some sneaky stranger.
"There's a song called 'Like I Love You' by Justin Timberlake. Lindsay and I were doing a scene in a car, and there was a lot of time in between takes, and there's a rap in the middle of that song by Clipse. She and I were trying to learn the words, and we were, like, sitting there with a pad,” she said.
“We were writing them down,” Curtis continued. “And then we would do the scene, and then we'd play the song and try to lip-sync the few words that we knew. I'm telling you, we laughed. And that is my secret code with her. 'What was the song we were lip-syncing to in the car?'”
She then confessed that while she may have given away their secret code, she wasn’t worried - the two have a second one, just in case.
- Helen, True Lies (1994)
Although Curtis has said that the 1994 James Cameron blockbuster tops the list of her favourite filming experiences, featuring everything from a striptease to an intense helicopter stunt scene, she almost didn’t star at all, with co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger hesitant about signing her on to play his wife in the action packed project.
When explaining why, Curtis noted that Arnold knew her “as Tony’s daughter”. Her father, Tony Curtis, had starred in the only film Schwarzenegger had directed, the 1992 Christmas in Connecticut.
"He only knew me as Tony's daughter,” she said. “He loved Tony Curtis, so I'm sure Arnold just looked at me like it'd be like kissing your niece or something ... I guarantee, in fact, he did not want me to be in that movie. I think he just thought it would be weird. We knew each other a little bit socially. I just don't think he thought of me as his leading lady, I think he thought of me as Tony's little girl. And it was Jim who said, 'no, I've written this for her. She's the one to do this with you’.”
Schwarzenegger, of course, eventually came around on the idea. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Images: Getty